Cheque clearing to be done at all bank branches by September 30

The measure was first announced during February policy meet of RBI, but the guidelines were to be issued by March

Cheques can be presented and cleared in any bank branches by September 30, after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) told banks to extend the image-based Cheque Truncation System (CTS) to all their branches.  

The measure was first announced during February policy meet of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), but the guidelines were to be issued by March.  

In its notification, the RBI said banks are free to adopt a model of their choice, like deploying suitable infrastructure in every branch or following a hub & spoke model, etc. 

The CTS has been in use since 2010 and presently covers around 1,50,000 branches. However, there are about 18,000 branches still outside the CTS clearing arrangement. This gives rise to hardships due to longer time taken and cost involved in collection of cheques presented by the customers, the RBI said in its notification.