Nigerian banks are set to introduce new cheque books with expiry dates and a new digit on the Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) code starting from January 1, 2021.
Leading Nigerian financial giant, First Bank of Nigeria Limited (FirstBank) announced this in a mail sent to its customers titled: ‘New features on cheque books’.
According to the Bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) approved the new standard cheque go into effect on January 1, 2021.
The apex bank had recently in its report entitled, “Monetary, credit, foreign trade and exchange policy guidelines for fiscal years 2020/2021,” said it was ensuring an enabling environment for efficient cheque processing and other paper-based payments instruments, through complete application of new and already adopted technologies.
It assured that it would continue to improve the clearing infrastructure to increase the efficiency of the system.
“The cheque truncation system shall continue to be used for the exchange of images of the instruments and Magnetic Ink Character Recognition.”
The CBN said it had approved the revised Nigeria Cheque Standards and Nigeria Cheque Printers Accreditation Scheme (NICPAS), to improve the safety and efficiency of the clearing system.
“Notable changes in the revised standards include the introduction of Quick Response Code for faster verification of cheque details, expiry date of printed cheque booklet and clear zone at the back of the cheque,” the apex bank noted.
It said that it would continue to conduct annual accreditation of the Nigeria cheque printers and cheque personalizers, in line with the provisions of the revised NICPAS. Post Views: 7
