February 12th, 2015 by CHEQUEMAN
JAIPUR: To expedite the payment process for contractors and other cheque transactions, the state government will switch to ‘Cheque Truncation System’ from February 15. Under CTS, presentation and payment of cheques are based on their electronic images thus doing away with the flow of the physical cheques issued by a drawer to the drawee branch.
Following the guidelines of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), state government has decided to adopt the system from mid-February. CTS will enhance efficiency of cheque clearance and make transaction process more transparent. In place of physical cheques an electronic image of the cheque will now be transmitted to the drawee branch through clearing house.
The process would obviate the need to move the physical cheques across branches, other than in exceptional circumstances for clearing purposes. This effectively eliminates the associated cost of movement of physical cheques, reduces the time required for their collection and brings elegance to the entire activity of cheque processing.
CTS will also effectively eliminate the associated cost of movement of the physical cheques, reduces the time required for their collection and bring elegance to the entire activity.
“Most processes of transferring money in the government is already being done online but there are many departments where payments to contractors and agencies take place through cheques. This will now be replaced by CTS,” said an official from the finance department. Departments that are likely to be benefited the most from the process are PWD, PHED, irrigation and forest department.
Meanwhile, as per the RBI directions all state governments have to switch to CTS pushing the discontinuation of MICR-based cheque system.
Source: The Times of India
December 30th, 2014 by CHEQUEMAN
Given below are the suggestions / best practices for increasing the penetration (customer registration / on-boarding) of Mobile Banking:
1. New Customer: at account opening time
- Account opening form should clearly indicate the option for mobile banking – the option for mobile banking services should be clear and distinct from the contact details of the customer where mobile number is also accepted; it should also be clearly indicated that alerts (if sent through SMS) will be sent to this registered mobile number.
- Customer should be made aware of the mobile banking facilities while opening the account. Further, the form should also clearly indicate that opting for mobile banking services will provide an alternate delivery channel to the customer; related inputs / materials / booklet etc. should be provided to the interested customers outlining the features of mobile banking services offered by the bank, the process involved, roles and responsibilities etc.
2. Existing Customer- Mobile numbers registered with the bank but not active for mobile banking:
As mobile number registration has already taken place and available with the bank (is linked with the account), wider and more accessible platforms should also be made use of by the banks to increase awareness on mobile banking at every opportunity to get more and more customers to register for mobile banking services.
Some of the methods that can be adopted by banks for having targeted customer awareness programs could include:
- sending SMS / e-mails to their customers on registered mobile numbers / e-mail ids about activating mobile banking, providing necessary URLs / customer care numbers from which the customer can obtain additional information on mobile banking activation process;
- ATMs and self-service Kiosks at branches can also alert the customers to activate the mobile banking options;
- social media can also be used by the banks to build awareness and encourage customers to register on mobile banking;
- through the internet banking website of the bank especially when the customer logs in for net banking operations (taking into account the security architecture and authentication mechanism already prevalent in the bank/s);
- banks can use their IVR and phone banking channels to encourage and facilitate registration and activation of customers for mobile banking;
- banks can also harness the potential of inter-operable channels such as the NFS (which is widely used by customers for transacting with their cards) to provide a widely accessible channel for mobile banking registration;
3. Existing Customer- Mobile number not registered with the bank at all
Banks need to find ways of obtaining mobile numbers of the account holders first for registration in their database and subsequently for mobile banking registration.
Some of the options that can be used for this purpose are:
- Through ATM channel – an alert / message can be given (at the ATM itself) by banks when the customer transacts at the ATM, that she/he has not registered any mobile number with the bank
- Branch visit- at teller level, when the customer comes to the teller for any cash deposit / withdrawal transaction, the customer profile should indicate that he/she has not registered the mobile number at the bank and should be asked to do so immediately
- Similarly, at passbook printing counters / kiosks too, the customer profile should be verified for existence of mobile number and customer should be advised to register the mobile number when he/she uses the passbook printing kiosk
- At BC level with biometric authentication.
December 16th, 2014 by CHEQUEMAN
Easing norms to enhance efficiency of cheque clearing system, the Reserve Bank will do away with the requirement of returning back paid government cheques to the concerned departments.
Presently Cheque Truncation System (CTS) is used to clear cheques that facilitates presentation and payment of cheques without their physical movement.
However, with regard to government cheques, they need to be sent back in physical form after the payment has been made to the government departments.
“The matter relating to dispensation of this requirement was taken up with the government and…the Controller General of Accounts, Ministry of Finance has given approval to our proposal of doing away with the requirement of returning paid government cheques back to government departments concerned,” RBI said in notification.
The revised guidelines would be effective from October 1, 2014, RBI said.
Accordingly, RBI said the government cheques would be paid in CTS clearing based on their electronic images. If any drawee bank wants to verify government cheque in physical form before passing it for payment, the image would be returned unpaid under the reason ‘present with documents’.
“The presenting bank shall ensure that the instrument is presented again in the next applicable clearing session without any reference to the account holder,” RBI said.
Among others, RBI said both the presenting and draweee banks need to preserve the cheques for a period of 10 years.
“In case some specific cheques are required for the purpose of any investigation, enquiry, etc., under the law, they may be preserved beyond 10 years.”
Also, government cheques paid by a drawee bank across its counter by cash withdrawal or transfer also needs truncation and preserved for 10 years and the drawee bank should continue to send the payment scrolls, monthly DMS, to government department.
“They should ensure that the mistakes/discrepancies pointed out are rectified as per procedure, missing images of paid cheques are submitted immediately, the copies of the scrolls duly verified by the PAO are kept on its record.”
Further, it said government may require any paid cheque in physical form for reconciliation, enquiry, investigation, and they can approach the drawee bank.
Source: The Economic timesÂ