The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has issued a bylaw obliging all banks to pass “interbank” checks only until 1 pm on working days, Eghtesad News reported.
An interbank check is issued on demand of the customer (account holder) and the amount, which is frozen in the account, must be cleared by the recipient bank only. In other words a third party cannot receive the amount.
The CBI launched a new check processing system known as Chekavak in December to eliminate the circulation of physical checks and to increase check credibility. The implementation of Chekavak also called for setting a deadline on check clearing times. This matter has been the most recent policy of the CBI.
The bylaw which has been issued to all banks indicates that if customers hand in a check after the set deadline they will need to wait a day before the check is cleared. In other words, the check shall only be cleared the following day sometime before 1 pm.
Customers however had not been properly made aware of the new regulations thus during the first days of its implementation customers faced troubles, the report said.
Checks were not accepted even half an hour after the set deadline even though the new regulations had not been publicly announced.
