Alteration on cheque is not allowed

One of the popular mode of is Payment is cheque clearing. The volume of the cheque clearing goes as high as 6 million per annum in India. Reserve Bank of India keeps making certain changes to make the cheques transaction more efficient, faster and safer.

In US the image of the cheque is considered as a legal document and it is used for bank clearing. On needs to send the scanned copy of cheque to bank through email or go to ATM and put a cheque in a machine for couple of seconds for scanning. This will ensure money transfer from one account to other.

In the same line, RBI has already completed a pilot for Cheque Truncation System (CTS) pilot project in NCR region. Now, it will be undertaken in Chennai. Cheque Truncation System has capability to process the cheque based on its image and actual cheque is not required. RBI has decided to prescribe certain benchmarks towards achieving standardization of cheques issued by banks across the country to effectively implement and run Cheque Truncation System. In February 2010, RBI comes up with a circular – DPSS.CO.CHD.No. 1832/01.07.05/2009-10 which is known as "CTS-2010 standard".

One of the most important changes is ‘Prohibiting alterations / corrections on cheque’ i.e. No changes / corrections should be carried out on the cheques other than for date w.e.f 1 July 2010. That means customer needs to issue a fresh cheque for any change in Payee’s name, Amount in figures and Amount in words.

This will not only help banks to control fraudulent alterations but also processes cheques faster thought CTS. Circular also asked banks to make changes in the existing cheque. Here are few changes listed in circular

·         All cheques shall carry a standardized watermark, with the words “CTS-INDIA” which can be seen when held against any light source.

·         Pantograph with hidden word “COPY” or “VOID” feature shall be included in the cheques so it should be clearly visible in photocopies and unspecified scanned color images.

·         Bank’s logo shall be printed in ultra-violet invisible ink.

·         All cheques should be issued with the account number field pre-printed. This is mandatory for current account holders and corporate customers.

All these changes on the cheque leaf will make it more secure and easy to handle. In the age of technology, Reserve bank of India has geared up to ensure to unauthorized copy of cheque gets cleared under Cheque Truncation System.