The Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) advises that effective 15 July, cheques that are not compliant with the standards prescribed by the Eastern Caribbean Automated Clearing House (ECACH) will no longer be accepted as negotiable instruments.
The ECACH, which became operational in all eight ECCB member countries in March 2015,
allows for cheque-based payments throughout the ECCU to be treated as domestic payments. This therefore means that customers can have their cheques settled within the same standard timeframes irrespective of the territory in which they are issued. The ECACH also offers a more secure and efficient payment transfer system.
However, to benefit from these efficiencies, customers are encouraged to contact their commercial banks to ensure that their cheques are compliant with the standards prescribed by the ECACH.
Does this mean that a cheque written on the side of a cow is no longer negotiable? Ref: A. P. Herbert, Misleading Cases.
just yesterday I deposited a cheque at a certain bank in my account drawn on another local bank, the teller told me will take 3 days to clear an u saying what for another island again< onie dem duz talk
wha apemn to our debit card our credit card,
A forward looking move indeed. Can you imagine a cheque drawn on a bank / financial institution in Dominica takes no less than two days to clear? This move allows for me to pay for services in Grenada on an NBD Cheque the same day.
Fran, that is how it was intended to be but that is not the case. Travelled to another OECS territory recently and was shocked when I was told by Bank of Nova Scotia that my cheque drawn on a bank in DA would take 2 weeks to clear. I even called ECCB to report the matter and they seemed well aware and unable to act. Up to a couple days ago, FCIB in DA informed me that a local cheque would take 5 days to clear. Only the National Banks seem to have introduced that 1 day clearing of cheques.
This article lacks research. A casual reading leaves you none the wiser. I would like to think that the setting up of the ECACH permits a Dominican to pay for services in, say, St Lucia with a cheque drawn on a bank in Dominica. For this to work well, the cheque MUST meet certain standards. I think again, that this may be the two critical items of information in the release. Up your game, DNO!
ADMIN: This is a press release sent to us by the ECCB. If you want further info contact the ECCB.
You could have made this article clearer to your readers, DNO. I am guessing that what the ECCB is saying is that cheques need the numbers at the bottom referred to as Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) which enable the information on the cheque to be read electronically. Electronic processing speeds up the clearing of cheques to same day as opposed to one or two days.
This is a logical and good move. At the same time I wish that the authorities would prosecute issuers of cheques for which there are inadequate funds. It is a criminal offence to render a cheque for payment, when there are insufficient funds in the account upon which it is drawn. We have too many “rubber” cheques issued and I’d love for some examples to be made in public to stop this bad practice.
The recipient of a bad cheque always has legal recourse against the issuer.
It’s just up to the bearer to the course of legal action or some people have been known to report the offense to the police.
The bigger question is… why are cheques not being phased out or at least discouraged these days in favour of card payments and especially chip and pin (using your PIN number – not a signature) by local outlets? no more bounced cheques, no more ‘3 days to wait for your money, no more excess and useless paper in the system, no more inadvertent mistakes on cheques making them returned …. need I go on?