Delay in clearance ‘within a day’
Rohit called in panic to know why his cheque clearance was delayed by many days, when it was heard that every cheque would be cleared within a day. There were technical glitches, the branch manager of a scheduled bank informed Rohit. The branch manager tried to avoid mentioning a specific time to have the cheque cleared after her failed deadline a day before. An uncertainty loomed. “Let’s wait,” some customers found comfort.
Similarly, many customers complained about the new cheque clearing measure after the Reserve Bank of India implemented a real-time cheque clearance system that replaced batch processing. The reason given was the insufficient training provided to employees. In addition to issues related to unfamiliarity with the new system, there were problems with inconsistent scanning procedures, poor digital images of cheques, connectivity issues with the central operations team, poor system integration, and system failures to read digital images, which caused some initial glitches.
According to the new system, the fund would be credited within four hours instead of 1-2 days. But all these are temporary issues. Given the fact that the banking system has always been capable of handling much bigger challenges, such minor issues cannot last long.
