Archive for the 'CTS – 2010' Category

What is Cheque Standardization

From the past few years, banks have been adding certain patterns and designs on the cheques so as to increase the security of cheques and to prevent cheque misuse, tampering or alterations. However, due to excessive use of ‘at par payable’ cheques or multi city cheques, RBI has decided to standardize the cheques in terms of size, MICR band, quality of paper, etc for easier, secured and faster clearing.

Checklist: Moving to CTS – 2010 compliant Cheques – rbi

Following are the points to be remembered while shifting to the Cheque Truncation System:

  • One should be using CTS – 2010 compliant cheques issued by bank from 1st April 2013.
  • Use of DARK colored ink to write or print on cheques.
  • Cheques drawn should be written or printed clearly and should be legible so that on scanning, the image can be read clearly.
  • No overwriting or cancelling on the cheques is allowed.
  • All post dated cheques that have been issued should be cancelled and reissued in CTS 2010 compliant cheque format.
  • All the old cheques issued in non CTS compliant cheques should be cleared before 1st April 2013.

Dishonor of Cheques

When a cheque is presented to a bank for payment and if it is not paid to the drawee, it is said to be dishonored or bounced.

It is a negotiable instrument and so dishonoring of cheques is said to be a Criminal Offence under NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENT ACT, 1881. The guilty can be charged with upto 2 years of imprisonment.