As a step toward modernizing the financial sector, Cambodian banks have standardized the format of all checks they issue, though customers will have several months to exchange their old checkbooks for the new standardized books, several bankers said Tuesday.
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, bankers said.
Though the NBC had first suggested the idea in 2008, delays meant that the initiative took until to Monday to start, said Phan Ying Tong, country head of the Cambodian Public Bank.
“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,” he said.
Tal Nai Im, director-general of the NBC, declined to comment Monday and Tuesday saying she was too busy to speak to a reporter.
Ho Peng, vice president of Mekong Bank, said 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.
“It’s a more efficient process, less errors,” he added.
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 checks will eventually take a back seat to electronic banking as has happened in much of the world.
“Once we have a good electronic system here people will move to electronic banking quite quickly,” he said.
