CTS-2010 Standard for cheque from 1st of January 2013 | Get your Cheque leaves replaced with CTS 2010 cheque -

Get your old cheque leaves replaced with new CTS 2010 standard cheque before 31st of December 2012 after which non-cts cheques will become invalid.

“CTS-2010 Standard” for Cheque Forms – Specifications

Mandatory features

1.1 Paper (At Manufacturing Stage) : Status quo shall be maintained in relation to paper specifications as it exists currently. Details of current specifications are contained in the document ‘Mechanised cheque processing using MICR technology – Procedural Guidelines’, available at – http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/PublicationsView.aspx?id=4551. Additionally, paper should be image friendly and have protection against alterations by having chemical sensitivity to acids, alkalis, bleaches and solvents giving a visible result after a fraudulent attack. CTS-2010 Standard paper should not glow under Ultra-Violet (UV) light i.e., it should be UV dull. This shall ensure that the feel of cheques is uniform across banks.

Watermark (At Manufacturing Stage) : All cheques shall carry a standardised watermark, with the words “CTS-INDIA” which can be seen when held against any light source. This would make it difficult for any fraudster to photocopy or print an instrument since this paper would be available only to security printers handling cheque printing. The watermark should be oval in shape and diameter could be 2.6 to 3.0 cms. Each cheque must hold at least one full watermark. Sample watermarks that would be used in CTS will be

finalized in consultation with Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) / National Payments Corporation

of India (NPCI) and could (illustratively) appear.

This measure will avoid duplicate cheques or DD’s floating in the market and this rule applies to all Banks including co-operative Banks.

Use of UV feature on cheque images : Though bank’s logo in UV ink is a strong deterrent for forgery and duplicate cheques, there are challenges in terms of increased image size, stabilization of UV technology in CTS environment, availability of UV-enabled scanners, etc., in implementing this feature. However, the benefits outweigh the limitations and hence this feature shall be incorporated. Presenting banks can subject instruments beyond a threshold value to UV verification using the UV lamps currently available for currency note verification. In case UV technology stabilizes in future, the UV image view could be incorporated in CTS as an additional image view or by dropping one of the existing image views.

Sample CTS check view as taken from RBI’s website: