No more foreign cheques

Bank Windhoek said this week acceptance of all foreign cheques was discontinued on 30 November 2013, following the announcement from the Payment Association of Namibia (PAN). No foreign  cheque will be accepted at any bank in Namibia for deposit or cashing in.  The discontinuation is the result of international banks having discontinued their clearing services to the Namibian banking industry. This announcement of PAN follows on the phasing out of cross border cheques and bank drafts in the Common Monetary Area (CMA) on 22 July this year.

Further reasons for the discontinuation of accepting foreign cheques in Namibia are the risks associated with cheque payments, which include, but are not limited to, the delays within a payment chain of up to eight weeks before value is received and the Namibian banking institutions do not have control over how long this clearing process could take.  The inefficiency of the clearing process is further compounded by the low volume of foreign cheque transactions in Namibia and the reliance on the issuing bank when such a cheque would be authenticated.“As an alternative to cheque payments, clients can make use of other payment methods such as card payments and electronic funds transfers through internet banking and cellphone banking. The banking industry is gradually moving away from paper-based payment instruments to electronic payments”, said Marlize Horn of Bank Windhoek.