The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has introduced a progressive penalty regime for customers who issue dud cheques, with sanctions becoming more severe for repeat offences. Under the revised rules, a cheque is classified as a dud cheque when the account holder does not have sufficient funds to cover the amount stated on the cheque. In such cases, the bank will reject and return the cheque unpaid, while the account holder could also face legal action.
For a first offence, the customer’s bank is required to impose a penalty equivalent to 10% of the cheque’s face value. The customer will also be issued a warning notifying them of the potential consequences of committing the offence again. The first offence must further be reported to the Bank of Ghana and the Credit Reference Bureaus (CRBs).
If the customer issues a second dud cheque within one year of the first offence, the penalty increases to 15% of the cheque’s face value. The second offence must also be reported to the central bank and the CRBs. In addition, the customer will receive another warning outlining the consequences of any further breaches, with repeat offenders facing more stringent sanctions, including restrictions on issuing cheques and accessing new credit facilities.
For a third offence committed within one year of the first, the penalty increases to 20% of the cheque’s face value. At this stage, the sanctions go beyond financial penalties, with the Bank of Ghana (BoG) imposing restrictions on the customer’s access to banking services.
The central bank will ban the customer from issuing cheques for a minimum of three years and prevent them from accessing new credit facilities within the banking system for one year. BoG will also notify all banks and Specialised Deposit-Taking Institutions of the ban.
The central bank has cautioned that adverse reports submitted to credit reference bureaus could negatively affect a customer’s creditworthiness, making it more difficult and costly to secure loans in the future. Potential consequences include a lower credit score, higher borrowing costs and restricted access to credit.
Once a bank receives notification of a cheque-issuing ban, it must inform the affected customer within five working days. The bank is also required to retrieve all unused cheque books and must not issue new ones until the sanction expires.
BoG has further warned that customers who fail to return unused cheque books within 10 working days of receiving notification could face additional sanctions. In such cases, the bank must report the matter to the central bank, which may subsequently bar the customer from operating any current account and list their name in the BoG’s Directory of High-Risk Cheque Issuers.
The central bank is therefore urging customers to verify their account balances before issuing cheques and to take into consideration any pending transactions that could reduce the funds available in their accounts.
Customers have also been advised against issuing cheques based on funds they expect to receive later unless they are certain the money will be available in time. They are encouraged to keep records of issued cheques and their expected presentation dates and contact their banks promptly if they anticipate insufficient funds.
