5-Day Clearing Week FAQs

(A) Cheques:

• For cheques deposited on Fridays after cut-off time and on Saturdays – funds will only be available on Tuesdays after 2pm.
• For cheques deposited on Fridays before cut-off time – funds will be available on Mondays after 2pm.
  
  
• For cheques deposited on Thursdays after cut-off time – funds will only be available on Mondays after 2pm as these cheques will be deemed as Friday cheques.

Only Singapore Dollar cheques drawn on banks in Singapore will be affected.

Yes.

This move is in line with practices in leading financial centres like the US, UK, Switzerland, Germany and Australia where there are no payment clearing facilities on Saturdays. Asian countries that do not have Saturday clearing include Thailand, China and Indonesia. It is also in line with the present move towards a 5-day work week among many companies in Singapore.

No. In fact, the move to a 5DCW will result initially in greater investments by banks in Singapore to change their present operational systems to provide for the additional resources to cater for the longer cheque deposit cut-off times for Thursdays and Fridays.

The debiting and crediting of customers’ accounts with cheques, GIRO or Interbank funds transfers currently done on Saturdays will be postponed to the next business days, on the following Mondays or Tuesdays.

Funds from cheques deposited on Fridays will be made available later when the 5DCW is implemented compared to the present clearing arrangement. However, measures can be taken to alleviate this.

Yes, we recognise that this move will cause some minor changes to banking routine of some customers initially. In particular, to those who currently need to have funds made available to them on Saturdays. It is expected that over time, these customers will be able to adjust their cashflow needs accordingly.

At Banks:

• Extension of the cheque deposit cut-off time by half an hour, up to 3:30pm from Mondays to Fridays.
  
  The additional half an hour will allow customers more time to deposit their cheques before the cheque deposit cut-off time, so that they can receive their funds earlier.
  
  
• Cash cheques can still be en-cashed at the drawer’s bank if customers need the funds on Saturdays.
  
  
• Cheques for deposit into an account may be marked and drawn on (on Saturdays too), provided both the payee and the drawer are from the same bank (A handling fee will be charged for this).

For Customers:

• Cashflow needs can be rescheduled to take advantage of the extended time on Thursdays and Fridays for deposit of cheques.
  
  
• Funds are still available via ATMs and Internet Banking.
  
  
• Customers have a long lead time with the implementation date in May 2006 to make the necessary adjustments to their payment routines.

It is scheduled for implementation on 15 May 2006.

For more details information, please call us 24-hour, toll-free at 1800 222 2121.