By McPherse Thompson,
Staff Reporter A wave of high-tech forgery of managers' cheques which are being encashed or used to pay for goods and services, has forced the island's two largest commercial banks to institute holding periods of up to five days on transactions involving use of the instrument.
The manager's cheque, which is usually treated as cash, has been used for many years as one of the safest ways of moving money around, but over the past year, the banks have started to handle them in the same manner as they would other cheques.
The National Commercial Bank (NCB), the island's largest, said the holding period was instituted because it has become evident that persons engaged in forgery were taking advantage of the development in technology to produce the highly sophisticated bank order.
An NCB spokesperson said the manager's cheque drawn on any branch of NCB may be negotiated on the same day of issue because the bank's personnel could make contact with the branch in question and verify whether a particular cheque has been issued.
However, cheques drawn on any other institution have to be deposited and held for between two and five days to be verified, the NCB spokesperson said.
The bank was responding to questions from the Financial Gleaner relating to information that some companies were facing an increase in the number of bounced cheques being used to pay for goods and services.
A credit manager at one large Corporate Area company who preferred not to be identified by name, said the cheques are usually dishonoured when they are lodged at the bank, and that the company rather than the bank usually ends up losing.
NCB has not said whether or not that institution has experienced an increase in forged cheques in recent times and if any other measures than the holding period on managers' cheques have been put in place to prevent being duped into accepting bounced cheques.
General manager in charge of finance at the Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) Jamaica, Dwight Richardson, could not say if the bank has experienced an increase in the number of bounced cheques in recent months.
However, he said that because of the high level of fraud, "we have upgraded the security of managers' cheques within the last six to nine months."
Mr. Richardson acknowledged that part of that security system was that BNS has instituted a holding period for managers' cheques, which he said could range from zero to five days "depending on the circumstances."
Noting that branch managers were guided by their knowledge of individual customers, Mr. Richardson said transactions involving managers' cheques would be entertained "as long as you can satisfy the bank about your identity."
Acting Chief executive officer of Union Bank of Jamaica (UBJ), Brent Ciurlino, did not respond to questions up to yesterday.
