Singapore to Phase Out Corporate Cheques by 2025
(29 July 2023 - Singapore) Singapore will eliminate corporate cheques by the end of 2025 but let people use them for "a period" beyond this, easing the transition with an electronic system allowing users to make a deferred payment or issue a cashier’s order.
Annual cheque transaction volume in Singapore has declined by almost 70 percent from 61 million in 2016 to less than 19 million in 2022, alongside growing adoption of e-payments by both corporates and individuals.
This has led to an increase in the cost of processing each cheque. Therefore, from November, banks will start charging both corporates and individuals for Singapore Dollar-denominated cheques.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has charged banks with building an electronic deferred payment system - tapping existing payment options like PayNow and Giro - as an alternative to post-dated cheques.
This is slated to go live in 2025, after which banks will stop issuing new cheque books to all corporates.
Individuals will still be able to use cheques for an unidentified period beyond this, with a consultation set for next year on when to make the cutoff and close the cheque truncation system.
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