Cheques clearance to go digital

The cheque clearance system will soon go digital, thanks to a new technology that reduces costs and duration from between four and eight working days to hardly 48 hours.

The technology, according to users, has many benefits for banks and customers due to its economic and tactical advantages unlike the manual system which is obsolete and moribund.

The current system, banks solution experts said, involves vast amount of unnecessary labour while cheques are handled for up to eight times and transported for up to four times for each transaction.

The Sybrin System Sales Manager, Mr Daniel Parreira, said cheque truncation solution involves replacing the physical paper with the electronic image at the bank’s branch where it was first presented. 

“This will be achieved through the ‘teller capture process’ which requires the front or back office clerk to capture cheque details, thus allowing for either holding or truncation at that point,” Mr Parreira told the ‘Daily News.’

He said the solution they provide - Sybrin Cheque Truncation System - provides for the encryption and transmission of images and data files from the participating banks to the Automated Clearing House (ACH).

“The images are so clear, there is no need to transport physical cheques for verification thus eliminating the opportunity for theft and fraud,” Mr Parreira, whose company is based in South Africa, said. 

The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) has proposed September to be the starting date of using truncation system. In Africa the system is already in use in Malawi, Kenya and Botswana.

The Computech-ICS Limited Managing Director, Mr V. Jayatheerthan said they partner with Sybrin after a two-month search for the firm that has the best solution that suit the country market’s needs “We are satisfied that the banking application works. 

And this is the better of the economy and the banking industry - as it cuts time and unnecessary human costs,” said Mr Jayatheerthan at the sideline of the road show seminar.

Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA), Clearing Officer, Mr Allan Msaki, who participated at the seminar, said they welcome the solution as it takes a number of staff to process a cheque which has now been reduced to a single machine. 

“The solution is healthier for banks and customers alike,” Mr Msaki said.

Another participant from Diamond Trust Bank (DTB), Manager of Centralised Operation, Ms Sharmina Jaffer, said the solution cuts risk, time and costs which at the end of the day removed from the client as well. 

“If we have gone digital on our mobile phones, television and so forth why not the cheque clearing system,” Ms Jaffer said “this is not only good for he bank sector but to the economy as whole.”

Source: The Daily News, www.dailynews.co.tz, reported by Abduel Elinaza in Dar es Salaam

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