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Some of Delhi's private banks have come out with the same-day `high-value' clearing facility, whereby they arrange to get cheques exceeding Rs 1 lakh each, and drawn on select bank branches, cleared the same evening or within a few hours. This is a great improvement over the usual three-day clearance system. These private banks have further simplified clearing operations by handling clearing operations directly from their offices, without sending the cheques physically to branches on which these are drawn. The Internet is being used for such clearing and also enables these banks to issue multi-city cheque books to customers. This saves customers the cost of the commission on a demand draft.

The Department of Banking (Finance Ministry) and the Reserve Bank of India should study regularly the new facilities offered by private banks and, if found viable, introduce them in nationalised banks. The RBI should evolve some such clearing system for major metros with the help of the Internet and night-staff, so that all cheques presented for clearing at the close of banking hours may be cleared early the next day.

Voluntary retirement schemes and the merger of banking branches must be used effectively to reduce overheads in nationalised banks. For instance, Canara Bank's Ballimaran-Delhi (merged branch of Lakshmi Commercial Bank) could be merged with the nearby Chandni Chowk branch.

Subhash Chandra Agrawal

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