As part
of measures to encourage the use of non-cash modes of transaction settlement,
the Bank of Ghana, in consultation with the banking industry, has set a limit
on the cashing of third party cheques over-the-counter at banks.
A third
party payee is anyone other than the account holder.
Effective
2nd July 2013, cash payments in honour of cheques to third parties
at bank counters shall not exceed ten thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢10,000).
The
limit does not apply to third party cheques that are presented for the credit
of an account through clearing. It does not also apply where the payee is the
drawer of the cheque.
However,
customers of banks are encouraged to use the various payment instruments and
products such as cards and mobile money available for transaction settlement in
the banks and at point of sale terminals.
Banks
and other financial intermediaries are encouraged to enhance and expand their
facilities to assist in the enforcement of the said limit.
The Bank
of Ghana expects that the implementation of the limit will also reduce the
incidence of fraud and other malfeasance as well as reduce the scope for abuse
of the banking system by criminals.
The
threshold for encashment of cheques over the counter by third parties would be
reduced further in January 2014.
In
related development, Guaranty Trust Bank (Ghana) Limited has introduced three
additional e-banking products as part of its bouquet of electronic banking
solutions aimed at both corporate and individual clients.
They
include the GTPay, an integrated and secure online platform to enable corporate
clients such as hotels, airlines, churches, educational institutions and
supermarkets to accept payments on their websites; the Trade Tracker, a
customer-driven product that allows individual and corporate clients to follow
and monitor the processing of their trade transactions with the Bank; and the Return
Cheque Notification system, an interactive platform that forwards notifications
to customers in the form of an email and SMS
immediately an inward cheque is returned from a third party bank.
Managing
Director of GTBank Ghana, Lekan Sanusi, explained that at the core of the
Bank’s values is the provision of convenient business solutions to all
customers, and as such, new and exciting alternatives are constantly being
offered to make the lives of customers easy.
“These
additions to the bouquet of its electronic banking products and services come
as testament to GTBank’s quest and success in offering convenient alternatives
and the utmost satisfaction for customers when it comes to e-banking
reliability” he stated.
Meanwhile,
GTBank has completed its GH-Link ATM interoperability project led by GhIPPS to
enable all its electronic terminals nationwide to accept other banks’ ATM cards.
This is a way of facilitating business transactions and deepening the process
of creating cashless society in the country.
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