Cheque Truncation System (CTS)

Cheque Truncation System Latest News

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided on the transition of the Cheque Truncation System (CTS) from the current approach of batch processing to continuous clearing with settlement on realisation in two phases.

About Cheque Truncation System 

• It is a cheque clearing system undertaken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for faster clearing of cheques. 
• As the name suggests, truncation is the process of stopping the flow of the physical cheque in its way of clearing. 
• CTS is an online image-based cheque clearing system where cheque images and Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) data are captured at the collecting bank branch and transmitted electronically, eliminating the actual cheque movement.
• Security: CTS is protected by a comprehensive PKI-based security architecture which incorporates basic security and authentication controls such as dual access control, user ID, and passwords with crypto box and smart card interfaces.
  • Only CTS-2010 standards-compliant instruments can be presented for clearing through CTS.
  • CTS-2010 standards contain certain benchmarks towards achieving standardization of cheques issued by banks across the country. 
  • These include provision of mandatory minimum-security features on cheque forms like quality of paper, watermark, bank’s logo in invisible ink, void pantograph, etc., and standardisation of field placements on cheques.
  • The minimum-security features and standardisation help presenting banks while scrutinising/recognising cheques of drawee banks in an image-based processing scenario.
• Benefits.
  • Realisation of proceeds of cheque possible within the same day.
  • Data storage and retrieval becomes easy.
  • Minimizes risks and introduces a secured cheque clearing system.
  • Will result in cost savings due to lower cost in the physical movement of cheques.
  • Minimizing bottlenecks and delays between presentation and realization time.
  • Provides shorter clearing cycles and a centralized image archival system.
    • CTS currently processes cheques with a clearing cycle of up to two working days. 
    • Once the newly announced measures by RBI on Continuous Clearing of Cheques under CTS are implemented, cheques would be cleared within hours of submission instead of two days.

Source: TH

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