Making funds transfers from one bank account to another from a different bank in a matter of minutes will be available at participating lenders this month.

The Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) said on Monday that customers can access the Fast And Secure Transfers (Fast) with effect from 8am on Mar 17, about three months ahead of the original schedule.

ABS announced last month that the service, which is seeing participation among 14 banks here, will be made available here by the middle of the year.

The service will be free for most retail clients including those of local banks' customers DBS, OCBC Bank and United Overseas Bank.

Foreign lenders with a retail presence such as HSBC and Maybank have also said the service would be free for their customers.

Business clients, meanwhile, will likely have to pay a nominal fee for using the Fast transaction, ranging from 20 cents per transaction charged by Maybank to $5 per transaction for OCBC and UOB's customers.

Fast is touted as a speedy service, allowing customers to make interbank transfers of up to $10,000 per transaction in minutes using the banks' online platforms.

It's faster than the two to three days needed to transfer funds using cheques or eGiro under the current process.

The 14 banks participating in the provision of Fast for now are DBS, United Overseas Bank, OCBC Bank, ANZ Bank, CIMB Bank, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Far Eastern Bank, HSBC, Maybank, RHB Bank, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Chartered Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.