MANAMA: Amendments that speed up clearing of cheques and reduce the risks of handling them have been announced by the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB).

The new procedures will make it possible to transfer cheques to the account of the payee on the same day.

“This is another step in the attempt to speed up the clearing of cheques,” CBB banking services director Ahmed Buhijji said yesterday.

“Cheques deposited before 11.30am will be realised by 3pm the same day,” he added.

Mr Buhijji said processing of cheques is now being done through the new Bahrain Cheque Truncation System (BCTS).

The BCTS offers customers a more secure and convenient service besides providing reference documents for bank customers to follow up the status of their cheques, he said.

“When a customer deposits a cheque, a bank provides the customer with a deposit slip generated by the BCTS.

“This deposit slip indicates the time the cheque was deposited and its unique reference number,” he added.

“When a bank returns any unpaid cheque also, the customer receives a cheque return advice generated from the BCTS from his bank,” he said.

“This cheque return advice clarifies the reason for this return,” Mr Buhijji added.

Mr Buhijji said that in order for the BCTS system to process the cheque electronically, it must be used in accordance with the new standards approved by the CBB.

“Customers who continue to use older design cheques could experience delays in cheque clearing through the new system.
“Therefore, the CBB calls upon all customers to replace the old cheques in order to speed up their cheque-based banking transactions,” he added.