INTERESTING REAL CHEQUE/CHECK STORY & CTS - HAS THIS HAPPEN TO YOU? PART I

  

Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cts-img_wiki.png

First print went live over here, INTERESTING CHEQUE/CHECK EYE STORY

Recently, we had deposited a cheque/check as we had done for years to open a new account. We also made certain that the issued cheque/check has the correct payee name, and is a CTS cheque/check. Unlike some countries, this banking system includes a semi-automatic process in processing cheques/checks. However, even prior to the introduction of the CTS process, we had been making payments and depositing cheques/checks for years, and we never had this unusual experience until this one.

What happened?

As soon as a cheque/check gets deposited, and the amount withdrawn to the payee account, the drawer/payer (person who wrote the cheque/check) tend to get a SMS with details of the amount withdrawn and the payee name. We also got one such SMS for the stated amount in the cheque/check. However, to our surprise, the payee name was different than what it should have been.

What did we do then?

We immediately contacted both the payer and payee banks (in this case, both payer and payee happened to be us) to inform this discrepancy, and made certain that the withdrawing amount gets deposited to the right account.  Upon confirmation from both the banks, we felt relieved. The amount also got deposited to the correct account upon clearance. However, when we looked at our online and passbook statements afterwards, we still saw a wrong entry mentioning the wrong payee name, though the amount was deposited to the correct account that was mentioned in the cheque/check.

What actions did we take to address this issue? What did we hear from bankers on the reason for this happening?

Would you like to know?

By the way, the whole idea of CTS was to reduce such kind of discrepancies, while improving the overall cheque/check clearance process. After this unusual experience, we discussed this matter to both the bank managers, and also shared this unusual experience to a couple of other bankers and auditors. All their answers were unanimous, and confirmed that this was certainly a very rare event, which they never personally experienced. Have you experienced something like this before? If you did, please feel free to share in the comments section, with details, and if possible, supporting evidence or two without giving away personal details.