Locally based Commercial Banks are among others in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) which will soon benefit from a more secure, faster and more efficient payment transfer system that will allow financial institutions to exchange cheques electronically.
A release from the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) says it is collaborating with the Banks to establish the Eastern Caribbean Automated Clearing House (ECACH), which will be launched on a country by country basis beginning in St Kitts and Nevis on 25 September.
The ECACH will allow financial institutions to capture images of the front and back of each cheque, and the code line data at the bottom of the cheque.
The images and code line information will then be transmitted between financial institutions. This shift to image-based clearing in the ECCU will not only improve efficiency, but will also allow financial institutions to introduce new services that provide faster and more convenient access to cheque images.
The ECCB says the ECACH will offer customers the benefit of having their cheques settled within a shorter timeframe. In addition, cheques drawn on a commercial bank in one participating country but processed at a commercial bank in another participating country will be cleared in the same timeframe as cheques drawn and processed at commercial banks in the same country.
