RBI postpones Phase 2 of cheque clearing rollout until further notice
Mumbai, Dec 24, 2025
RBI has deferred Phase 2 of continuous cheque clearing to give banks more time, and modified presentation hours to 9 am-3 pm and confirmation hours to 9 am-7 pm
The second phase of the cheque clearing system has been postponed until further notice to allow more time for banks to streamline their operations, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Wednesday.
Earlier, lenders were asked to have a continuous cheque clearing system instead of the fixed batch format from October 4, 2025 to ensure more convenience for customers.
“Implementation of phase-II is being postponed, until further notice, to allow more time for banks to streamline their operations. Also, the timing of the presentation session is modified to 9 am to 3 pm and the timing of the confirmation session is modified to 9 am to 7 pm,” the RBI said.
Under the new system, cheques received by the bank branches will be scanned and sent to the clearing house continuously during the presentation session, which runs from 10 am to 4 pm. The clearing house will release the cheque images to drawee banks on a continuous basis. Each cheque will now be settled on a near real-time basis, instead of the clearing cycle from the current T+1 days.
The phase-I for this system is scheduled from October 4 to January 2 next year, wherein drawee banks are required to confirm cheques presented on them latest by the end of the confirmation session. Cheques for which confirmation is not provided would be deemed to have been approved and included for settlement.
The item expiry time for all cheques will be set as 7 pm during this phase.
Phase-II was expected to start from January 3, 2026, wherein the item expiry time of cheques would be changed to T+3 hours. Cheques for which confirmation is not provided by the drawee bank in the prescribed three hours would be treated as deemed approved and included for settlement at 2 pm.
Settlement will start arriving every hour from 11 am onwards, till the end of the confirmation session, based on the positive confirmations received from drawee banks and cheques considered deemed approved. Further, the presenting bank is supposed to process the same and release the payment to the customers within one hour from successful settlement, subject to the usual safeguards.
The value of transaction under the cheque truncation system (CTS) in FY25 stood at ₹71.13 trillion with the volume of transactions standing at 609.54 million. The value of transactions in April-August period FY26 stood at ₹29.39 trillion.
[The Business Standard]
