Commercial banks standardize check format
Bankers said on Tuesday that all Cambodian banks issue the standardization of check format, customers will have several months to exchange their old checkbooks for the new standardized books, reported the Cambodia Daily.
The new checks, which are a standard size, paper-type and share the same coding system, will eventually allow the National Bank of Cambodia to clear checks between banks in an automated fashion, rather than the current time-consuming manual procedure, read newspapers.
Phan Ying Tong, country head of the Cambodian Public Bank, quoted by the Daily as saying the central bank first suggested the idea in 2008, delays meant that the initiative took until to Monday to start.
“This is another step toward automation. How much Bank A owes to Bank B, and how much Bank C owes to Bank A; this will be automated, said he.
Ho Peng, vice president of Mekong Bank, said that no fixed date was set for a complete switch to the new checks for all customers, and most customers won’t notice a large difference under the new system, reported daily.
Stephen Higgins, CEO of ANZ Royal Bank, said that the new checks are a small step forward for Cambodian banks. He predicted that in Cambodia check will eventually take a back set to electronic banking as has happened in much of the world, reported newspapers.
“Once we have a good electronic system here people will move to electronic banking quite quickly,” said he.