General Direction No. 03 of 2013 - Service Norms and Standard Times for Accepting Cheque Deposits and Crediting Cheque Proceeds

1 Payment and Settlement Systems Act, No. 28 of 2005 General Direction made by the Monetary Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka under Section 44 of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, No. 28 of 2005. Nivard Ajith Leslie Cabraal Chairman of the Monetary Board and Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Colombo 30 December 2013 The General Direction No. 03 of 2013 - Service Norms and Standard Times for Accepting Cheque Deposits and Crediting Cheque Proceeds This direction may be cited as the General Direction No. 03 of 2013 – Service Norms and Standard Times for Accepting Cheque Deposits and Crediting Cheque Proceeds and shall replace the General Direction No.1/2007 on the Participating Institutions’ Service Norms and Standard Times for Accepting Cheque Deposits from Customers and Crediting Cheque Proceeds to Customers’ Accounts issued in December 2007. This General Direction shall apply to all Participating Institutions (PIs) of the Cheque Imaging and Truncation System and shall come in to effect from 30 December 2013. 2. Every PI shall adhere to the island-wide minimum cut-off time of 3.00 p.m. for collection of cheque deposits and shall present such collected cheques to LankaClear (Pvt.) Ltd. (LCPL) on or before the time specified by LCPL for clearing on the same business day. 3. Every PI shall credit proceeds of cleared cheques to respective customers’ accounts by 2.30 p.m. on the day on which the inward return data report is received from LCPL.

2 4. Every PI shall formulate procedures and norms on cheque collection; crediting cheque proceeds to customers’ accounts; and the modalities for handling customer complaints, in order to achieve the purpose of this Direction. Such procedures and norms shall ensure that the obligations of the PI to the customers and the rights of the customers are established and observed in practice. 5. Every PI shall ensure that – (i) Procedures and norms established under Paragraph 4 above and times of cheque collection and crediting of customers’ accounts are informed to customers by: a) Displaying prominently on the notice boards in banking halls in their branches and near the cheque collecting boxes, so that it attracts the customers’ attention as well as that of the staff of the PI for adherence; b) Printing a message on the monthly current account statement; c) Publishing in the newspapers from time to time; and d) Posting them on its website. (ii) Any changes to procedures and norms or times of cheque collection and crediting of customers’ accounts are duly informed to the customers; (iii) Proper and convenient arrangements are available for handling grievances enabling grieved parties a right to approach authority designated by the PI for handling the grievances; (iv) Amended cut-off times are conveyed to the Director, Payments and Settlements of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka within 3 days of the implementation of the same. 6. Each PI shall periodically review their existing arrangements for cheque collection and shall take an effort to extend the cut-off time for cheque collection and to reduce the time required for crediting proceeds to customers’ accounts after receiving the inward return data report of the settlement clearing.