For the last few months, State Bank of India in its advertisements has been asking customers to get new cheque books because the old ones will not be valid from January 1, 2013. The ads also mention that the bank will send the new cheque books to customers’ registered addresses. Recently, a news channel said this rule would apply to all other banks. When I tried to clarify that, I got different replies from four different banks. One said its cheques already conformed to the new guidelines; another said customers get a get limited supply of new cheque books; the third one said there was no reason to worry if the old cheques conformed to core banking solutions; and, the fourth bank said the old cheques could still be used for cash withdrawals after January 1. But they all maintained that the new cheque books would not be sent to the customers directly. They needed to duly fill the required slips. The Reserve Bank or the Indian Banks’ Association should publish ads to clarify these doubts. They should ensure that the new cheques are sent to the account holders’ addresses with a formal request.
N Ramamurthy Chennai
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