The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today said more security features will be introduced to make cheques tamper-proof and prevent fraudulent withdrawal of funds.
"It has been decided to prescribe certain benchmarks towards achieving standardisation of bank cheques across the country," the RBI said in a communication to all banks.
The new features would include use of quality paper, water-mark and printing of bank logos in invisible ink, standard size, clutter-free background, use of ultra violet images etc. "Homogeneity of security features is expected to act as a deterrent against cheque frauds," the RBI said.
The RBI also said the "Cheque Truncation System-2010 Standard" will be introduced after ascertaining the readiness of banks to adopt it.The proposed format is based on the report of the RBI working group in this regard.
RBI has said during April-December 2009, clearing houses processed on an average around 45 lakh cheques every day.
"Several measures have been initiated by the RBI to ensure that this retail payment product functions in a safe and efficient manner," it said.
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The RBI said introduction of the magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) technology during the mid-80s has been the single-most important development responsible for making the cheque clearing popular and efficient-–volume-wise, speed-wise and convenience-wise.
Over a period of time, banks have added a variety of patterns and design of cheque forms to aid segmentation, branding, identification, and also incorporated a number of security features to reduce the incidence of cheque misuse, tampering, alterations, etc.