Mbabane: The Central Bank of Eswatini (CBE) and Eswatini Bankers Association (EBA) has announced its intention to discontinue cheques as mean of payment with effect from January 1, 2022.
A cheque is a document that orders a bank to pay a specific amount of money from a person’s account to the person in whose name the cheque has been issued. The person writing the cheque, known as the drawer, has a transaction banking account often called a current, or cheque account where their money is held.
The decision to discontinue the issuing, acceptance, and collection of cheques is in the interest of moving all payments to safer, faster, and more cost-effective payment platforms which are now available and widely supported by the banking system.
The Central Bank stated that cheques are prone to fraud, have a lengthy processing period, have restricted acceptance, limited protection for the consumer, and their declining usage with the availability of alternative payment options means that the industry can no longer support their costly and aging processing infrastructure.
“In this regard, Eswatini Bank and Eswatini Building Society will no longer accept cheques for deposit or encashment from January 1, 2021.”
CBE said the public is urged to adopt and use the alternative payment platforms that are available in the banking system and Eswatini building society which include internet banking, mobile banking, electronic funds transfer, SWIFT, points of sale, debit and credit cards, and other products which the industry introduced and continue to develop and roll out.
Customers are expected to communicate with their respective financial institutions on the available payment options in their institutions for enabling migration and education and training on usage where necessary.
The CBE and EBA said they were committed to ensuring that the transition to the new platforms is smooth and that the general public is not inconvenienced
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