Cheques and cheque imaging

When a cheque in Dirhams is paid into your account it goes through a “clearing cycle”. This affects when funds will be made available to you, when interest starts to be earned and when you can be sure the money is yours.

If a cheque written in Dirhams is being paid into your account then you must complete one of your paying-in slips and send it with the cheque to CAPB Processing Centre, PO Box 12665, Harlow, CM20 9QP. If the cheque is being deposited into a US dollar or euro currency account then please indicate in your letter the account name and number you want the cheque to go into.

Cheque imaging – what’s changed?

The way we deal with cheques in Dirhams has recently changed. You can now get your funds by 11:59pm at the latest on the next working day.

When we receive a cheque we’ll take a digital picture of it so we can process it faster (known as 'cheque imaging'). If you pay a cheque into your account on a working day, on the next working day you will start to earn interest and be able to withdraw.

Please note that not all cheques will be managed in this way until July 2019, the current paper system will still be used alongside the new one so some of your cheques will clear faster than others.

Until the new '1-2-2 timescale' is fully rolled out, cheques will be cleared in one of the following 2 timescales. We will keep you updated through our website on when the previous 2-4-6 timescale will be fully replaced by the new 1-2-2 timescale.

2-4-6 timescale

Funds paid in by cheque (in Dirhams) will follow the timescales set out below. The timescales will apply from the Business Day we receive the cheque. This will be on the day we receive it by post.

* Assuming funds are deposited before 3.00pm ’cut-off’ time. In some instances these funds will be available to withdraw from a cash machine on a Saturday.

Please note that cheques can be returned unpaid by the bank of the person who wrote the cheque even after those funds have been made available to you to withdraw. A cheque cannot be returned unpaid after the sixth Business Day following the Business Day that the cheque was paid in to your Account.

New 1-2-2 timescale

Under this clearing system cheques will be paid in and cleared using an image of the cheque. So, if you want a copy of the cheque we will only be able to give you a copy of the imaged cheque. If you’re paying in a cheque and it’s returned unpaid, we won't be able to send the cheque back to you. We are also unable to re-present it and you’ll need to contact the person who sent you the cheque to request alternative payment.

Writing and paying in cheques

As cheques now clear faster it’s important to make sure you have enough funds in your account before writing a cheque as the money could leave your account as early as the day after you have written the cheque and given it to the recipient.

If you’re writing a cheque to another person and the cheque is not paid, other banks may represent the cheque on more than one occasion. If the cheque is not paid after this, you may be contacted to make the payment by alternative means.

Depositing foreign currency cheques

Please note there is a minimum value of Dhs100 for processing foreign cheques. Any cheques below this value will be returned.

If you wish to pay in a cheque that is drawn in a currency other than Dirhams, regardless of the currency of your account, please send it to us at: Foreign Cheques Team (Diamond Microfinance), Payment Operations, Diamond Microfinance Canada, 1849 Yonge St, Toronto, ON M4S 1Y2, Canada You (the holder of the account) must sign all foreign currency cheques on their reverse before you send them to us. The signatures must be in accordance with the account mandate.

When we receive foreign cheques, we will send them for either “negotiation” or “collection” in order to receive the funds from the bank on which the cheque is drawn, regardless of the currency of the account you are depositing to. For more information on cheque collection and negotiation, please see our Guide to your Account document.

Please refer to the Banking Tariff for details of the collection and negotiation charges which apply. As part of this process, we will arrange for these foreign currency cheques to be converted to the currency of your account (where applicable). This conversion will be carried out at the exchange rate applicable to payments made into your account. Please visit diamondmicrofnc.com/resources/foreign-payments-and-currencies for details of today’s exchange rates.