Our Bureau

Mangalore , Nov. 20

THE Reserve Bank of India will introduce a pilot project on cheque truncation process from the next financial year.

Addressing a gathering at the celebrations of the 100 years of Canara Bank, organised by the Mangalore Circle here on Saturday, the RBI Deputy Governor, Mr V. Leeladhar, said that this system would revolutionise the face of banking in the country.

Terming it as one of the big project the RBI is taking up, he said, "We are starting a pilot project which is going on stream on April 1, 2006."

Stressing the need for creating awareness on the electronic mode of payment, he said many of the bank customers and employees of banks do not know about Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) scheme.

Nearly 12,000 bank branches in 560 cities in the country can undertake remittance under RTGS. He said that daily 10,000 transactions are taking place all over the country under RTGS. Non-awareness among the customers is the main reason for the scheme not picking up among them. He urged the customers to use this mode of payment system.

He asked Canara Bank, which is charging lesser for RTGS compared with others, to use it as a tool to garner new accounts.

Mr Leeladhar said that the ombudsman scheme had been reviewed comprehensively. "The revised ombudsman scheme is going to be launched in a couple of months. If customers have any complaints, they can look up to with this scheme," he said.

He said that though banks have many branches they have not yet touched the common man.

Mr M.B.N. Rao, Chairman and Managing Director of Canara Bank, presided over the function.

Dr D. Veerendra Heggade of Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala was present on the occasion. Mr R.K. Madukar, General Manager, Mangalore Circle, welcomed the gathering.

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