Teething troubles in new cheque clearing system

Mumbai: The continuous cheque clearing system that came into effect earlier this month was meant to clear cheques within hours. This was to be achieved by banks scanning and sending images of presented cheques for clearing.

However, teething troubles have resulted in a high number of rejections, causing cheques to sometimes take over a week to clear—much worse than the next-day clearing that customers were used to.“During these initial days, we have encountered some teething issues both at the central system operated by NPCI and at the participating banks, resulting in delays in clearing and crediting into customers’ accounts, and a large number of returns,” the National Payments Corporation of India said in a statement.

It added that most of these issues have now been resolved, and the central system has been stable since Monday, Oct 13.But some customers say their cheques are yet to be cleared. “None of my cheques that have been deposited on and after Oct 3, have been cleared. Amounts have been debited from the payers’ accounts but not credited to my account, so I can’t even ask them to pay through NEFT or another mode of payment,” said Seema P Wadhwa, proprietor of Gidhandas & Co.,

adding the delay had disrupted financial planning for her business.According to bankers, delays in cheque clearance under the new system are mainly due to technical integration glitches, poor cheque image quality from rushed scanning, and inadequate staff training, which have led to operational bottlenecks and manual intervention. “NPCI is working with banks to address any remaining issues to ensure same-day credit for cheques,” the corporation said.