D-DAY SET FOR ONE-DAY CHEQUE CLEARING

Bangkok Post - 17 January 2012

The Bank of Thailand will begin a new cheque-clearing system on Feb 3 that allows banks to clear cheques using an image instead of physical paper as before, said governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul.

The Imaged Cheque Clearing and Archive System (ICAS) will allow for the storage of electronic data and images.

Dr Prasarn said electronic payment service providers in Bangkok including most commercial banks will start using ICAS on Feb 3, while nationwide it will be available by May.

The new system should shorten the cheque-clearing cycle to one working day from 3-5 now, similar to the international standard.

The system can cut expenses for delivering physical cheques by more than 600 million baht yearly, especially handy during natural disasters.

Liquidity is expected to increase by 1.64 billion baht, with opportunity loss reduced by 100 million baht a year.

In addition, the ICAS can be used as legal evidence without physical paper.