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From Tuesday, August 6, individuals and businesses in Barbados that receive payments by local cheque will begin to have quicker access to their funds.
News of this came from Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados Dr. Kevin Greenidge at the end of his quarterly review of the economy on Monday.
This is because the Bank has implemented a new system that reduces the time it takes to process cheques.
“Since October 2023, we have been working with the commercial banks on a cheque digitisation project that would reduce the time it takes them to clear local cheques. Right now, it takes anywhere between three and five days. The goal for us is to reduce that to one business day,” Dr. Greenidge said.
The Governor, however, pointed out that the print quality of some cheques will require improvement. Where there are quality challenges, banks may not be able to clear those cheques within a day.
“We have asked the commercial banks to work with their customers whose cheques have print qualities that are not up to standard, and we have given them six months to get it all done correctly, so that anybody who writes a cheque will be able to benefit from the one-business-day processing in early 2025,” he said.
The new cheque clearing system follows the upgrade of the automated clearing house system to facilitate real-time electronic payments. Governor Greenidge said additional improvements will be coming.