The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday has postponed Phase 2 of the cheque clearance journey until further notice. Phase 2 of the Continuous Clearing and Settlement on Realisation (CCSR) in the Cheque Truncation System (CTS) was scheduled to go live on January 3, 2026, but the RBI postponed it, stating it is allowing banks time to streamline their operations.
The RBI rolled out Phase 1 on October 4, 2025, requiring banks to confirm cheques presented to them—positively or negatively—by the end of the confirmation session at 7:00 pm. Any cheque left unconfirmed by that time was treated as deemed approved and pushed into settlement. This uniform 7:00 pm expiry time helped banks transition into the new regime.
Revised Operational Hours
Phase 2, however, was set to be more demanding. From January 3, 2026, the item expiry time was to shift to a tighter T+3 clear‑hours window. A cheque received between 10:00 am and 11:00 am, for instance, would need to be confirmed by 2:00 pm. If the deadline were missed, the system would automatically treat the cheque as approved.
Balancing Speed and Stability
For now, the rollout will have to wait. The RBI’s decision offers banks an extension of time to streamline and prepare for a more dynamic clearing environment.