State Bank Reduces Inter-Bank Cheque Clearing Time From 48 Hours to 3 Minutes Amid Lockdown

• The State Bank Of Pakistan has announced measures to limit person-to-person interaction of customers
• Customers may drop their cheques in drop boxes of their banks or have them collected from registered addresses
• Corporates/Priority customers can send Banks the scanned image of a cheque to push funds around

The State Bank Of Pakistan has announced measures to limit person-to-person interaction of customers whilst continuing to facilitate banking during the COVID-19 impact.

These measures work to ease banking for all, customers and bankers alike. The measures announced by the State Bank in a letter to all CEOs,Presidents and Clearing Houses allowed Banks/MFBs to provide alternate services to customers to facilitate banking.

Direct Cheque Deposit Facility

A crossed cheque may be presented by payee/beneficiary directly into the paying/drawee bank, instead of their bank branches as per the existing practice.

Doorstep Cheque Collection Facility

Banks/MFBs may make arrangements to collect cheque from registered addresses of their customers upon their request.

Drop box Cheque Collection Facility

Customers may drop their cheques in drop boxes of their Banks, installed in selected branches.

Banks may allow their Corporates/Priority customers to send them the scanned image of the cheque along with relevant details of the Beneficiary either through registered emails or through mobile Apps of their banks to push funds from their accounts to the payee bank.

Further, to minimise person-to-person interaction, Banks/MFBs may also make arrangements with the Clearing House (NIFT) for clearing their cheques through Image Based Clearing (IBC) functionality as per the agreed SOPs between NIFT and banks.