SB Order No. 12/2019 : Change in the limit of accepting POSB Cheques for deposit in SB/PPF/SSA/RD accounts

Streamlining 0382 - Interim for cheques already cleared but not utilised in DOP finacle

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am directed to convey the following

This is regarding the Interim solution for the issues reported on account of streamlining debit entries in office account 0382.

Post offices were not able to open new accounts or subsequent deposits due to following reasons

1. POs where cheques were cleared and credits available in 0382 office account , but the debit balance was made zero on 21/01/2019 for  the office account ( 0382).

2. POs where cheques were not lodged but office account 0382 was debited directly for opening new account and subsequent deposits. These POs have not followed the mandated cheque clearing process.

Though instructions were given to utilise the credits in 0382, many SOLs have failed to open new accounts / subsequent deposits for the credits which were available in 0382.

It is seen that many HOs are not using zone operations for cheque clearing. POs are directly debiting funds after cheques are cleared. Validations have been built to restrict transfer in CXFER. POs are requested to follow cheque clearing process scrupulously to ensure that sufficient funds are available in office account 0382 after regularisation of cheques. It is seen that only 3876 SOLs have credits in 0382 and 157 SOls are having credits in 0017 through zone operations for the month of January 2019.

It is suggested that the concerned HOs can lodge the cheques once again and credit 0382 account post approval of the concerned Division. These relodged cheques should not be sent to clearing house again as these cheques have already been accounted. We can allow this re-lodging till 29/01/2019. SOLs can regularise the zone and cheque amount can be utilised for deposits/account opening with the original clearing date as value date. This will also ensure that the SOLs under scenario 2 explained above, will commence zone operations and proper utilisation of 0382. Divisions to ensure that relodging is completed before 29/01/2019.

              Cheques pending for account opening/subsequent deposits to be consolidated and lodged on same day after approval from Divisional head.  It is responsibility of the POs to ensure that only those cheques which are cleared and accounted already but not utilised for account opening/subsequent deposits to be lodged again.

             

              Please revert in case of any issues.

              This has the approval of DDG FS sir.

Thanks and Regards

Gopinath S

Inspector Posts

Data Migration Command Centre(CBS)

Chennai 600 002

9962067155

Streamlining office accounts 0382 & 0017 accounts in DOP Finacle- Important

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am directed to convey the following

This is regarding the point (3) in trail mail

Balances in office account 0382 should always be 0 or in credit. Validations are to be deployed for not allowing DEBITS in office account 0382 if the balance of the account is in DEBIT. As part of this activity, debit balances in this office account (0382) will be nullified to zero after 15/01/2019. Henceforth, debit from this office account cannot be done if sufficient balance is not available. Suitable instructions to be issued to POs for following cheque clearing process correctly to ensure that necessary credits are available in 0382 office accounts before debiting. Further, circles should ensure that reconciliation in 0382 office account is completed and debit balances are tallied against necessary cheque clearance and the same is accounted in daily account. This exercise should be completed by all circles. Discrepancies if any to be reported immediately.

Due to technical issues, patch for nullyfying the debits was not deployed and necessary parameters have not been changed . This will be done on 21/01/2019.

It is learnt that several POs have not opened new accounts/posted subsequent deposits for the cheques which were cleared in earlier dates. Post deployment of this patch, POs will not be able to use these credits for account opening/subsequent deposits as their 0382 office account is already in Debit Balances.

All POs are requested to open new accounts /post subsequent accounts for the cheques where clearance is completed and balances are available in 0382 immediately. Sub Offices / HOs should open new accounts/post subsequent deposits for all cheques which got cleared on or before 21/01/2019 without fail. HOs are requested to inform their sub offices over phone/mail for the cheque cleared on 21/01/2019 to open new accounts/post subequent deposits on 21/01/2019 itself.

Please revert in case of any clarifications.

Thanks and Regards

Gopinath S

Inspector Posts

Data Migration Command Centre(CBS)

Chennai 600 002

9962067155

Streamlining office accounts 0382 & 0017 - Important

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Dear Sir/Madam,

              This is regarding streamlining the transactions in office accounts 0382 (For opening of account and subsequent deposit by other Bank Cheque) and 0017 (CLEARING DR. A/C. OUTWARD CLEARING). This streamlining process is to resolve the below issues

1.      0017 office account is used both for outward clearing (by system) and subsequent deposits including RD agent transactions .

2.      Several offices are not following cheque clearing process properly and debits for new account are made without proper credits resulting in huge debits in office account (0382).

New Procedure to be followed

1.      Cheques for New account Opening and Subsequent deposits should be lodged in office account 0382 ONLY (For opening of account and subsequent deposit by other Bank Cheque); from 01/01/2019 onwards. Cheque lodging will be allowed only in 0382.

2.      Office account 0017 will be accessed by SYSTEM only for cheque clearing operations wef 01/01/2019

3.      Balances in office account 0382 should always be 0 or in credit. Validations are to be deployed for not allowing DEBITS in office account 0382 if the balance of the account is in DEBIT. As part of this activity, debit balances in this office account (0382) will be nullified to zero after 15/01/2019. Henceforth, debit from this office account cannot be done if sufficient balance is not available. Suitable instructions to be issued to POs for following cheque clearing process correctly to ensure that necessary credits are available in 0382 office accounts before debiting. Further, circles should ensure that reconciliation in 0382 office account is completed and debit balances are tallied against necessary cheque clearance and the same is accounted in daily account. This exercise should be completed by all circles. Discrepancies if any to be reported immediately.

4.      Credits into 0382 will be only through cheque clearing and transfer could not be done from other office accounts. It is observed that some POs are debiting from other office accounts for crediting into 0382. Necessary validations are built to restrict credit from other office accounts and debit in this office account without credits.

5.      As interim procedure, offices can continue to debit 0017 for a period of one week (till 07/01/2019), during which all cheques lodged in 0017 prior to above configuration changes will get cleared and credited into customer accounts.

6.      Amount credited through clearing in office account 0382 upto 15/01/2019 should be utilised latest by 15/01/2019 itself, for account opening/subsequent deposits. Once the balance is made zero in the offices where 0382 is in debit balance, further debiting will not be allowed.

Configuration change along with deployment of patch

• 0017 office account will be restricted for debit: Only 0382 will be allowed as debit account in all the account opening menus and CRDP / CPDTM; 0017 office account cannot be debited from08/01/2019.
• Configuration change related to HAGTXP: This will be done for handling debit transactions through agent portal to 0382 office account instead of 0017 office account. [proposed to be done from 08/01/2019]. The cheques cleared in 0382 during the preceding week have to be kept pending for processing till 07/01/2019. Hence all the agent cheques which got cleared from 01/01/2019 to 07/01/2019 need to be kept pending for processing till 07/01/2019. Only from 08/01/2019, Cheque bulk list where credits are available in 0382 can be processed.
• 0382 office account can be used for account opening and subsequent deposits (except Agent bulk) from 01/01/2019 to 07/01/2019.  Agent bulk list where cheques got cleared for the above period to be kept pending till 07/01/2019.
• Exception handling: Any cheques lodged in 0017 upto 31/12/2018 and cleared after 07/01/2019, will be handled separately by allowing transfer between 0017 & 0382 for the specific SOLs . This will be done after receipt of mail from concerned circle CPCs. This process is only for clearing backlog cheques if any. 

Following will be the status of accounts, on successful completion of the above configuration / operational changes:

• ​​0017 will be used for clearing operations only; this office account at SOs (non-clearing offices) will not be getting any transactions. 
• 0382 will be either in credit or zero balance.
• The balance amount transferred from 0017 to 0382 office account, will have supporting transactions in 0382 ledger which can be audited separately to check whether cheques for these amounts were cleared manually instead of processing through zone operations. A report will be provided to circles with details of office account and amount of debit cleared for reconciliation. Circles can use this report for reconciliation to ensure that debits have been accounted in their daily account/summary.
• The debit transactions in 0017 other than clearing transactions, can be audited by circles separately to check whether cheques for these amounts were cleared manually instead of processing through zone operations.
• Any clarification on the above may be referred to helpdesk.cbs@indiapost.gov.in

CPCs are requested to kindly forward the above instructions to POs immediately.

This has the approval of DDG FS sir.

Thanks and Regards

Gopinath S

Inspector Posts

Data Migration Command Centre(CBS)

Chennai 600 002

9962067155

Buffman error while posting the charges transactions of Inward Clearing in DOP Finacle

FSI has confirmed that patch meant for  Time stamp buffman error occurred during Inward zone clearing

But,  few offices reported  such  cases again during this week

Issue is that charges transaction were in enter status and while posting user got buffman error

FSI wants to analyse the issue then and there itself

So, if any such issue occur again, please report such issue with following details to email IDs referred in CC

1. SOL ID

2.  Inward zone Code and date

3. Transaction ID 

4. Screenshot of error

5. Screenshot of  General tab page highlighting Charge transaction ID ( which is available on the bottom of the page just above Validation status ) 

6. What is the status of Zone

7. Whether user tried Zone closure multiple times

8. User ID(s) tried posting the transaction / Zone closure

Please do not request for deletion of such transaction without analyzing /  getting confirmation from FSI

For already reported issue, if you have screenshot of error and other information , please share it

Thanks & regards,

CEPT - FSI Team

Instructions on Outward Zone with immediate effect in DOP Finacle

The following instructions are issued with respect to Outward zone with immediate effect

1.       Please do not lodge more than one instrument ( Cheque) in single SET against account  in Outward zone in HOCTM

2.       If already lodged in past date, please do not attempt  “Release to shadow balance” in HMCLZOH  till further instructions

3.       In case of emergency, please revoke the suspension of Outward zone in HMCLZOH, then delete the multiple instruments ( Cheques) by using HOCTM so that only one instrument may be retained in a SET of Outward zone

Further update on above points will be sent within a day or two, on receipt of solution from Infosys

​Thanks & regards,

CEPT - FSI Team

Important Validations added in Outward and Inward zone in DOP Finacle

Validation added in Outward and Inward zone

Dear SPOCs,

The following validations are added in Outward and Inward zone related menus to curb irregular practices and to prevent few operational issues

HOCTM :

1. Validation is built for HOCTM menu such that if zone date selected (entered) is less than BOD date, lodging the cheque in the zone will not be allowed. It is available for “Add” function. This Validation triggers after click on Go.

2. Lodging of cheque in HOCTM, is allowed for accounts of scheme codes SBGEN, SBCHQ, SBBAS and specific office accounts 0382, 0017, 0410(DBT)

HMCLZOH:

3. Validation added in HMCLZOH to restrict opening of zone with zone date greater than the BOD + x number of working days. x is maintained as “2” 

Ex: If BOD date is 30th Sept 2018 .and next two days are holidays (1st -2nd Oct), then zone can be opened for 30 sept,3rd oct and 4th oct 2018.

HICTM:

4. Validation added in HICTM. Inward clearing and Inward reject of instruments, is allowed only for accounts of scheme codes SBCHQ,SBPEN,SBSAN.

5. Outward reject of instruments is allowed for accounts of scheme codes SBGEN, SBCHQ, SBBAS and specific office accounts 0382, 0017, DBT

Thanks & regards,

CEPT - FSI Team

NON USAGE OF CHEQUE CLEARING MODULE IN DOP FINACLE

I am directed by competent authority to convey the following

It is seen that many POs are not using Cheque Clearing Module in Finacle for Lodging cheques for opening of new account, subsequent deposits. Instead they are debiting office accounts directly using CXFER menu which is incorrect. Certain Hos are using HTTUM for Inward clearing instead of Cheque Clearing Module.

Please find below the extract of SB ORDER 5/2016

It is reiterated that Cheques should be lodged only in Head Office into the relevant office accounts specified for New Account Opening and Subsequent Deposits. Office account 0007 should not be used for cheque clearing process.

It is also seen that few POs are transferring amount from office account 0382 to BO settlement account which is incorrect. CPCs/EOD Team may kindly be consulted for resolving issues if any faced during EOD wrt to cheque clearing. Few POs are debiting directly from POSB account manually without following the cheque rejection process.

POs are requested to follow the cheque clearing process scrupulously and ensure that validation reports are run invariably. Any discrepancies noticed in validation run to be cleared before Suspension of zone.

Please do not hesitate to revert in case of any issues.

In continuation of trail, the following points are also brought to your notice

1. By using HTTUM in place of clearing process,  cheques of  SB account  will not be updated as "PASSED" and remained as "UNUSED".  Users using the same cheque number fraudulently again and again. 

2. Multiple validations which are built in zone validation report, will be skipped , if HTTUM is used. This will also lead frauds

3.  In some offices,  cheques  lodged in outward zone, are regularised ( Posted and made as Effective balance) and then trying for rejection.  Before regularising the outward zone,  cheques  which are REJECTED BY CLEARING HOUSE, should  be rejected first by selecting "outward" in Field "Reject" in HMICZ menu and close the Inward zone meant for outward rejects. Then only outward zone , should be regularised ( Regularise the shadow balance). 

4. Rejection of outward cheques , should only be done after releasing to shadow balance

Chronicle order of  Outward zone

1. Opening Outward zone in HMCLZOH

2. Lodging the other bank cheques in HOCTM

    Use  either SB account or 0017 of HO for PPF/SSA/RD subsequest deposits  or 0382 of respective SO  for opening of account

3. Suspend the zone in HMCLZOH

4.  Verifying the cheques in HOCTV ( Bulk) / HOCTM

5.  Sending the cheques to clearing house

On receipt of clearing cheque details from clearing house

6. Release the zone to shadow balance in HMCLZOH

    By doing so, amount will be posted to respective accounts and lies in FUNDS IN CLEARING

    Effective balace for withdrawal = Balance available - FUNDS IN CLARING

   Check HPR for reports

In case of Outward cheques are rejected by other banks through clearing house

7. Open  Inward zone meant for Outward rejects  in  HMICZ

8. Lodge the cheques in HICTM and select "Outward" in REJECT Field

9. Enter the outward rejection details in explode button available ( can be seen after REJECT field)

10. Verify the cheques lodhed in HICTM

11. Run validation report in HMICZ

12. Wait for 2 minumtes and check in HPR for validation report

13. Based on discrepance found , use HICTM to modify the cheques or delete the cheques and very the cheques

14. After clearing validation, rerun validation report in HMICZ and check in HPR , to make sure that no validations are pending

15.  Suspend the zone in HMICZ ( At the time of suspending zone, one can see COMPLETE againt validation status field if validations are cleared)

16.  Post the zone in HMICZ  and check reports in HPR

17. Close the zone in HMICZ and check the reports in HPR

18. After closing the Inward zone meant for outward rejects, Regularise the shadow balance in HMCLZOH. By doing so, funds in clearing , will be moved to effective balance. Check HPR for reports

Thanks and Regards

Gopinath S

Inspector Posts

DMCC

Chennai 600 002