By KENNETH KWAMA and JAMES ANYANZWA
Questions are emerging over the efficiency of the much touted cheque truncation system.
It had been expected that with the new system in place, bank customers countywide would enjoy shorter cheque clearing cycles — meaning they will access their funds much faster.
While a few customers have been lucky enough with their cheques clearing in two days, expectations for a majority have turned into agonising wait as most of the customers we talked to say that they have to wait more than two days for their cheques to clear.
Fransisca Muinde, who operates a business account with a multinational bank, says she has had to wait the three mandatory days for local cheques to clear.
“I use the new generation cheques and we were told they would take two days to clear, but this is not the case. There is a time it took more than one week to clear for an upcountry cheque that I was given by one of my customers,” says Muinde.
Close to a year after the system went live, it is emerging that it is business as usual — commercial banks are taking more than the stipulated period of three days to process and clear cheques for payments.
Banking customers who spoke to Business Weekly expressed dissatisfaction over the extended cheque-clearing period with some opting for ‘cheque for money services’ at a fee.
mixed fortunes
Mr Maurice Otieno, who banks with Co-operative Bank in Kisumu, says he has had mixed fortunes with the new system.
“Ordinarily my cheques take an average of four days to clear, but there is a time that I banked a cheque drawn from my bank (Co-operative) and it cleared the following day,” says Otieno.
