• Cheque truncation system will be extended across India
• This will eliminate the cost of movement of the physical cheques and reduce the time required for their collection
The Reserve Bank today said that the Cheque Truncation System (CTS), which is currently operational at the major clearing houses of the country, will be made operational across India by September 2020. "The Cheque Truncation System (CTS) has stabilised well and it has made large efficiency gains. In view of this, a pan India CTS will be made operational by September 2020," the RBI said today.
Cheque truncation removes the need to move the physical instruments across bank branches, other than in exceptional circumstances for clearing purposes.
Instead of movement of cheques across banks, an electronic image of the cheque is transmitted to the paying branch through the clearing house, along with relevant information like data on the MICR band, date of presentation, presenting bank, etc.
This effectively eliminates the associated cost of movement of the physical cheques, reduces the time required for their collection and brings elegance to the entire activity of cheque processing.
Cheque truncation was implemented in Delhi in 2008 and later extended to many other cities.
In cheque truncation, the presenting bank (or its branch) captures the data (on the MICR band) and the images of a cheque using their Capture System (comprising of a scanner, core banking or other application).
The RBI today kept the repo rate unchanged, while maintaining accommodative stance. "The monetary policy committee also decided to continue with the accommodative stance as long as it is necessary to revive growth, while ensuring that inflation remains within the target. These decisions are in consonance with the objective of achieving the medium-term target for consumer price index (CPI) inflation of 4% within a band of 2%, while supporting growth," the RBI said in a statement.