You got the email, so tell us!

It is CHEQUE truncation, not bank truncation.

It will help speed up the clearance of cheques from the present 4 days to 3 days and eventually to 24 hours [by year end]

Essentially; if give me a cheque drawn on your EQTY account and I bank it in my KCB account, my bank will take a digital photo of the cheque and send it to your bank.

Your bank will then verify signature and amount and communicate to my bank. If all is OK my bank will pay the money to me. In short, clearance will be done without physical movement of the cheque.

Evenvtually, the banks will link up their databases so that clearance will be done "in-house" within 24 hours. That is, when I bank the cheque in my KCB account, my bank will retrieve your signature from EQTY database and verify it. Then the amount will be keyed in and an Ok or Not Ok message will be replied {NB: my bank will not get to know your account balance - just whether there are enough funds; same way they do with debit cards}.

If you are an honest person, then this is a great move' but if you like "playing" around with the long clearance time, then this is bad for you.

BTW: the network deal was worn by SCOM

What are the cost implications now.What are the charges from the major banks for new cheque books and who will bear the cost?

UPDATE: The deadline has been pushed to 12th June. Here is copy of email from my bank:

"New CTS cheque books to be introduced from 13th June 2011. You may therefore continue using your old cheque book until 12th June 2011. If you have not placed an order for your CTS compliant cheque book, please do so immediately"

I got my Stanchart CTS checkbook last week. Notably:

1. All cheques accross all banks will all be of standard size (7x4) inches.... the older Stanchart cheques were of smaller dimensions.

2. The CTS cheques bear a hologram (I was expecting something with a KBA logo etc, but mine just shows the SBK logo.

3. There's an Ultra-Violet light sensitive portion on these cheques, just like that found on most currency notes.

4. Alterations of any kind; even when counter-signed will not be accepted.

5. I'm not sure if this applies across the board.... but for Stanchart, you need to have the cheque-book activated (unlike before) prior to using it.

@Outvestor:
1] My bank (I&M) was already using that std size for business accounts.

2] The hologram is NOT std feature - my CTS cheque book doesn't have it. SCBK has been having the hologram on business account chques for as long as I can remember!

3] The UV light feature cannot be seen with the naked eye! So, if someone pays me with a cheque, I have no way of seeing them... unless I also buy a UV light source....

4] The point on alterations does not help me identify if it is CTS or not

5] Activation is not std requirement.... and it doesn't help me know if the cheque I was paid with is CTS or not.

@Mukiha,

Recall the KBA watermark I was expecting to see on the cheques? Well, I just spotted it. Simply hold your new cheques under a source of light.

I did this using a colleagues BBK Cheque-book. I'll cross check my old & new cheque-books from Stanchart later on.

I hope that's a new feature at last & not something that has always been there.