In a press release issued to the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday, the central bank stated that despite an existing sanctioning framework, it had observed a persistently high rate of dud cheques being issued by certain customers. That trend, the BoG warned, had damaging consequences for the general acceptance and credibility of cheques as a payment method in Ghana. 

Under the new directives, the penalties will be applied on an escalating scale for repeat offenders. “For a first offence, a bank or SDI must levy a charge of 10% of the cheque’s face value from the account holder and issue a formal Warning Notification. 

This notification, which can be sent via SMS, email, or other established means, must inform the customer of the consequences of repeating the offence,” the release said. It said the institution must also report the offence to credit reference bureaus and the Bank of Ghana, and place the customer under surveillance for a minimum of one year. 

The BoG said if a customer issued a second dud cheque within one year of the first, the drawee bank or SDI shall impose a higher levy of 15% of the cheque’s face value and issue another warning. The second offence must also be reported to the credit reference bureaus and the BoG. For a third violation within the same one-year period, the customer would face a levy of 20% of the cheque’s face value, the release said. “Crucially, the BoG will impose a minimum three-year ban on the customer from issuing cheques anywhere in the country,” it said. 

“Furthermore, a third-time offender will be banned from accessing new credit facilities from the entire banking system for one year, and the BoG will notify all financial institutions of this ban.” “Upon receiving this notification, the customer’s bank must inform the customer within five working days, recall all unused cheque books, and must not issue new ones until the sanctions are lifted.” 

The BoG also reserved the right to publish a list of third-time offenders, the release noted. It said failure by a customer to return unused cheque books within 10 days of notification would result in them being reported. “The BoG may then ban the customer from operating any current account and add their name to a Central Bank Directory of High-Risk Cheque Issuers, which will serve as a reference for the entire industry.”