Kolkata, Aug 02: The State Bank of India on Saturday commenced a MICR Cheque Processing Centre here to handle outward clearing cheques of 12 scheduled commercial banks in Kolkata. "This has been a prestigious job alloted to us by RBI and the facilities developed are much better than the similar facilities available in other parts of the country. It is a masterpiece of facilities here," SBI chief general manager T K Kesavamurthy told reporters after inaugurating the facility.

Kesavamurthy hoped that the apex bank would share some more cheques with SBI in future in addition to only 12 banks at present so that the facility could become economically viable.

RBI general manager Vijay Chugh said the centre at SBI was part of RBI's disaster management policy and would work as back-up office in the event of any technical snags or that of incidents like September 11, 2001.
"This was a part of RBI's vision to introduce robust and efficient payment settlement system," Chugh said. Bureau Report