Banks in Kenya will stop accepting Barclays cheques effective February 1. Consequently, Absa Kenya has asked customers with Barclays cheques to replace them.
“Please note that Barclays cheques will no longer be accepted by other banks effective 01.02.2021. Kindly plan replace your Barclays cheque book with an Absa cheque book to avoid any inconvenience,” the lender has told its customers.
— Kanali (@NicKanali) January 15, 2021
Barclays Kenya on 10 February 2020 officially rebranded to Absa Bank Kenya PLC following all necessary regulatory approvals. This follows the take over of the bank by the Absa group in 2018.
In South Africa, Absa stopped issuing new cheques from July 2020 the Reserve Bank in a report had cited security concerns, including problems with forged, altered and counterfeit cheques.
“Against this background, Absa has taken a business decision to exit cheques as a payment instrument from its product functionality, by December 2020,” says Gangeni. “To ensure minimum disruption to customers, a phased approach will be followed and from 1 July new cheque books will no longer be issued to Absa customers.”
“We realise that this may impact the longstanding banking experience of some of our customers – we have alternative digital payment instruments such as Online Banking, cards payments and electronic fund transfers (EFTs) capabilities available. These options are safer, convenient, and more efficient than cheques,” says Gangeni.
