New Delhi, Dec. 26 -- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has deferred the implementation of Phase 2 of its faster cheque clearance framework, which was scheduled to come into effect from January 3, 2026.

Under the proposed phase, banks would have been required to approve or reject cheques within three hours of receiving their digital images.

In a circular issued on December 24, the RBI said the second phase of the Continuous Clearing and Settlement (CCS) framework has been postponed until further notice.

Phase 1 of the system, which was rolled out earlier this year, will continue to operate unchanged.

Revised Processing Timings

Alongside the deferment, the RBI has revised cheque processing hours. The cheque presentation window will now ...