Editing Cheque (section)

=== India ===
[[File:Sample cheque.jpeg|300px|right|thumb|A sample cheque issued by [[UCO Bank]] in India]]
Cheques were first used in India by the Bank of Hindustan, the first joint stock bank established in 1770. In 1881, the Negotiable Instruments Act (NI Act)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://devgan.in/negotiable_instruments_act/|title=Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881|website=A Lawyers Reference|accessdate=18 December 2022}}</ref> was enacted in India, formalising the usage and characteristics of instruments like the cheque, the bill of exchange, and promissory note. The NI Act provided a legal framework for non-cash paper payment instruments in India.<ref name="rbi.org.in"/> In 1938, the Calcutta Clearing Banks' Association, which was the largest bankers' association at that time, adopted clearing house.<ref name="rbi.org.in"/>

Beginning in 2010, the [[Reserve Bank of India]] (RBI) along with the [[National Payments Corporation of India]] (NPCI) piloted the [[cheque truncation system]] (CTS). Under CTS, cheques are no longer physically transported to different clearing houses. They are processed at the bank where they are presented, where an image of the cheque using [[Magnetic ink character recognition]] (MICR) is captured and digitally transmitted.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Dubey |first1=Navneet |title=What is Cheque Truncation System and how it benefits you? |url=https://www.livemint.com/news/india/what-is-cheque-truncation-system-and-how-it-benefits-you-11617628948918.html |access-date=16 May 2022 |work=mint |date=5 April 2021 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=CTS - Frequently asked questions {{!}} NPCi |url=https://www.npci.org.in/what-we-do/cts/product-overview |website=www.npci.org.in |access-date=16 May 2022}}</ref>

In 2009 cheques were still widely used as a means of payment in trade, and also by individuals to pay other individuals or utility bills. One of the reasons was that banks usually provided cheques for free to their individual account holders. However, cheques are now rarely accepted at [[point of sale]] in retail stores where cash and [[Bank card|cards]] are payment methods of choice. Electronic payment transfer continued to gain popularity in India and like other countries this caused a subsequent reduction in volumes of cheques issued each year. In 2009 the [[Reserve Bank of India]] reported there was a five percent decline in cheque usage compared to the previous year.{{cn|date=May 2024}} In 2019, the Reserve Bank of India reported that while cheque usage continued to decline, the decrease was slow. The bank attributed the slow pace of the decline due to the fact that cheque volume had briefly increased after [[2016 Indian banknote demonetisation|demonetisation]] in 2016 before continuing to fall, as well as the efficiency of India's cheque clearing system.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/banking-finance/india-at-the-bottom-of-the-list-least-reduction-in-usage-of-bank-cheques/1598438/|title=India at the bottom of the list: Least reduction in usage of bank cheques|date=5 June 2019 |accessdate=18 December 2022}}</ref>