CB sees cheque transaction boom after CIT entry
Hiran H. Senewiratne
SUCCESS: The Central Bank (CB) is anticipating a major boom in
the cheque transaction system in the country within the next few years
with the introduction of the Cheque Imaging and Truncation System (CIT)
system, its sources said.
Currently, the CB and LankaClear are attempting to facilitate the
faster clearance of cheques especially in outstation areas, which takes
minimum of 15-20 days, CB- Assistant Governor, P.D.J. Fernando said.
He said that Sri Lanka is the first country in the region to
introduce CIT system to the entire country other than Singapore.
Most of the countries in the region practice the CIT system only in
their provinces and cities and some of the developed countries have
still not thought of even implementing a nationwide CIT system, he said.
With the growth of the economy the number of cheques are bound to
increase in volume in many folds within next few years. At present more
than 200,000 cheques are being cleared worth in Rs 17 billion, he said.
Assistant Governor said that with the introduction of the system it
would take only 1- 2 business days to realize a cheque by reducing
clearing time to a greater extent.
Before, introducing the system cheques were transported physically to
the nearest LankaClear clearing agent for sorting them out and they were
transported to relevant branches thus involving a lot of days for
realization, he said.
But the new system involves less physical transportation of cheques
and mostly the cheque image would travel on wire bringing a level
playing field throughout the country, Fernando said.
LankaClear (Pvt) Limited CEO/ General Manager Anura de Silva said
those promoting cheques offered better options than credit cards because
they do not promote debt.
He said that strengthening of cheques clearance will create more
valued retail paying instruments in the country and will benefit the
country by pumping more liquid in to the economy on a regular basis.
The entire commercial Banking System is already linked. |
