RBI extends deadline for CTS cheques
Bank account holders can continue to use their old format cheques for another three months as RBI has extended the deadline for banks to issue new cheques with uniform security features till March next year.
The Reserve Bank in a notification on Friday said, “Taking into consideration representations, it has been decided to extend the time up to March 31, 2013 for banks to ensure withdrawal of non-CTS 2010 Standard cheques and replace them with CTS-2010 Standard cheques.”
While most banks have confirmed that they are issuing only multi-city or payable at par CTS-2010 standard cheques at present, representations have been received from various stakeholders requesting for extension of the time beyond December 31, 2012, it said.
The homogeneity in security features of CTS 2010 cheques will act as deterrent against frauds, and the fixed field placement specifications facilitate straight-through-processing at drawee banks’ end through optical or image character recognition technology.
