New Delhi – The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced a new system that will allow cheques to be cleared within hours.
This change comes under the introduction of Continuous Clearing and Settlement on Realisation in the Cheque Truncation System (CTS).
According to the RBI, this new system will be rolled out in two phases:
Phase 1 begins on October 4, 2025
Phase 2 starts on January 3, 2026
All banks have been advised to inform their customers about the updated cheque clearing process and to prepare for participating in continuous clearing under CTS from the above dates.
Under the new rules, there will be one cheque presentation session daily, running from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
During this period, cheques received by bank branches will be scanned and immediately sent to the clearing house.
The clearing house will then continuously forward these cheque images to the concerned drawee banks.
The confirmation session will start at 10:00 AM and end at 7:00 PM.
For every cheque processed, the drawee bank must provide either a:
Positive confirmation (if the cheque is honoured), or
Negative confirmation (if the cheque is dishonoured)
Each cheque will carry an ‘Item Expiry Time’, which is the deadline by which the drawee bank must respond.
Drawee banks are required to process cheque images as soon as they are received, throughout the day, in real time. They must then send their confirmation (positive or negative) to the clearing house immediately.
Phase 1: October 4, 2025 – January 2, 2026
During this phase, drawee banks must confirm cheques by 7:00 PM.
Any cheque that hasn’t been responded to by that time will be considered approved and will be included in the settlement. All cheques during this phase will have an item expiry time of 7:00 PM.
Phase 2: From January 3, 2026 Onward
In this phase, the item expiry time will be set to T+3 clear hours. For example, if a cheque is received between 10:00 AM and 11:00 AM, the drawee bank must respond by 2:00 PM (i.e. 3 hours from 11:00 AM).
If no confirmation is provided within this time, the cheque will be treated as approved and cleared automatically.
