In the guidelines, banks/microfinance banks have been advised to credit the customers' accounts within the timelines as defined in the guidelines and in case they fail to do so they are obliged to compensate customers for the delayed period except the force majeure events declared and communicated to customers. In case the collecting bank fails to credit the payee's account as per the timelines mentioned in these guidelines, due to any reasons (like payment instrument lost during transit or error/discrepancy in payment instruments made by Clearing House or Bank during the processing of payment instruments), it will pay the mark up @ 3 percent above the SBP policy rate to payee for the period of delay subject to determination and notification of the error as per Section 36 of the PS&EFT Act, 2007.
As per the guidelines, the collecting bank will pay the compensation amount to payee's account without any claim from the payee within thirty-one days from the lodge of payment instrument by the payee. In case the collecting bank is not responsible for the delay it can claim the compensation payment from drawee or clearing house whoever is responsible except in case the drawee/clearing house has declared force majeure.
Banks/clearing house will not be liable to compensate the payees in case the bank/clearing house declares force majeure and the bank will be required to communicate the force majeure events to customers. According to a circular issued Thursday, in terms of the powers conferred upon State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) under Section 3 of the Payment Systems and Electronic Fund Transfers Act, 2007, SBP is issuing the 'Guidelines for Clearing Operations' in line with its Vision 2020 that stipulates to implement a robust regulatory and supervisory framework for payment systems in Pakistan.
These guidelines cover major areas such as roles and responsibilities for clearing house and its members, timelines to clear and settle various clearing batches, compensation policy for consumers, dispute resolution mechanism and centralized clearing for banks having online branches, etc. The SBP said that these guidelines have been issued for compliance by clearing house (s) and its members including banks and microfinance banks involved in clearing of Pak Rupee payment instruments to facilitate general public for timely realization of funds in their bank accounts and ensure consumer protection.
Banks/microfinance banks have also been advised to make arrangements for centralized clearing of their intercity instruments through their designated branches in cities where they are present to reduce the clearing time due to physical movement of instruments. Further, in order to timely resolve customer complaints, dispute resolution mechanism with turnaround time has also been prescribed for banks/microfinance banks.
In addition, all banks/microfinance banks have also been advised to disclose the cut-off time for presentment of payment instruments, timelines to credit the customers' accounts, and the roles, responsibilities and liabilities of customers with respect to collection and clearing of payment instruments. Banks have also been asked to centralise their clearing operations to make the intercity clearing more efficient provided inter and intra city cash withdrawals/payments through payment instruments are offered by banks to payees. Consequently, the practice of physical movement of intercity payment instruments shall be discontinued.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017