CIAA allows NCHL to resume electronic cheque clearing service
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KATHMANDU, FEB 02 -
The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) on Wednesday dispatched a letter to the Nepal Clearing House Limited (NCHL), asking it to resume the electronic cheque clearing (ECC) service.
The anti-graft body on December 30 had ordered NCHL to halt its operations after it received a complaint that the company purchased software paying more than the actual market price. CIAA had directed NCHL not to resume operations until it completes its investigation.
Although the investigation has not completed, CIAA allowed NCHL to resume operations, asking it to offer the service free of cost. “The CIAA investigation will continue,” Dilli Raman Acharya, joint attorney general at CIAA.
NHCL CEO Neelesh Man Singh Pradhan confirmed that they received the CIAA letter. “However, it is not clear weather banks should provide free-of-cost service to their clients or it is us who should not charge the banks.”
According to an NHCL official, they will probably start clearing cheques next Monday.
NHCL has been established in the joint ownership of 23 commercial banks, two development banks, Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) and Smart Choice Technologies (SCT) to run ECC service.
Some bankers had expressed strong reservations on the high amount paid for the software, saying that the cost would ultimately be transferred to member banks and financial institutions (BFIs). Nepal Banker Association (NBA) recently formed a three-member committee to study the issue.
ECC system makes the clearing cheques process swifter. Under this process, a bank, after accepting cheques from customers, scans the cheques and sends them to NCHL, which will then forward it to the paying bank. The paying bank, after verifying signature and other details, will send the cheques back to NCHL, which will then forward them to NRB for final settlement. According to NHLC, the entire process is completed in real time.
The Nepal Rastra Bank, however, has maintained that the procurement process was transparent and the price for the software is different in different countries.
Posted on: 2012-02-02 09:17
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