Bank Cheques to be Cleared Within a Day

The Cheque and Credit Clearing Company (C&CCC) – the organisation that manages the cheque clearing system – has today announced details of the launch of an industry-wide image-based cheque clearing system that will speed up cheque processing significantly for customers across the UK.

The new system will go live with some banks and building societies from 30 October 2017. Then, at some stage in the second half of 2018, all of the UK’s banks and building societies will clear all cheques via the image-based system to the faster timescale. Over time, increasing numbers of cheques will be cleared using the new system and more and more customers will benefit from the faster timescale, until such time in the second half of next year when all cheques will clear more quickly. The precise date as to when this will happen will be announced by the industry in due course. Banks and building societies will also advise their customers at the appropriate time regarding their individual roll-out plans.

For customers, the new system will mean that if they pay in a cheque on a weekday they will be able to withdraw the funds by 23.59 on the next weekday (excluding bank holidays) at the latest, with many banks and building societies likely to allow customers to access their funds earlier than this.  Introduction of the new process will also mean that when a cheque is paid in, not only will the recipient receive the money in their account more quickly; the money will leave the account of the person or business that wrote the cheque to the faster timescale too.

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