‘Commercial banks must help stop cheque fraud’
Commercial banks have been urged to be proactive in their activities to help eradicate the menace of cheque fraud in the country.
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The Head of the Management Information Systems (MIS) and Clearing House Operations at the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) Limited, Mr Isaac Kofi Amoah, made the call and said banks needed to put control measures in place to check or reduce the illegal practice.
Even though Mr Amoah could not give statistics with respect to the impact the menace had on the national economy, he stated that the situation was alarming and scary, and needed collaborative effort between GhIPPS and the financial institutions to resolve the situation.
Mr Amoah was interacting with the media after a workshop organised for journalists on clearing house payment system in Accra.
He said the country lost millions of cedis as a result of cheque fraud, a situation, he said, could scare investors and have a ripple effect on the economy.
The workshop was also meant to expose financial reporters to the general activities of the GhIPSS.
Cheque transactions shore up
According to recent figures from GhIPPS, the value of transactions conducted through the use of normal cheques in the country increased by 32.39 per cent from GH¢73 billion in 2013 to GH¢96.81 billion in 2014.
This indicates a deepening move from cash-based transactions to a cashless society.
Total transactions through the clearing house grew by 26 per cent to 11.2 million transactions in 2014 from 8.9 million transactions in 2013.
Promote Gh-Link system
In a presentation, the Chief Executive Officer of GhIPSS, Mr Archie Hesse, also called on local financial institutions to do their best to promote the Ghana (Gh) - Link system as against VISA cards.
He further encouraged them to adopt internet banking and reduce the operation of automated teller machines (ATMs), noting that the use of ATMs across the world was decreasing except in Africa.
“Financial institutions should deploy a lot of point of sale (POS) terminals or devices instead of ATMs, which should actually be the last resort for customers,” he said.