Banks told to issue multi-city cheques

With a view to improving customer services and speeding up fund transfer, the Reserve Bank of India has asked all CBS (core banking solutions)-enabled banks to issue multi-city cheques to all eligible customers and refrain from levying clearing charges on them.

A ‘payable at par’ or ‘multi-city’ cheque of a bank can be cleared by any branch of the same bank in the country. The process has significantly reduced the outstation cheque clearance time.

The Reserve Bank of India notification has also directed the banks not to levy any charge for clearance of such multi-city cheques.