Investing Can be Interesting & Financial Awareness: Apply for new cheque book if the current cheque book you have, was issued before Aug 2011.

Will your cheque book be valid after 31st December, 2012?

As per RBI guidelines, there have been certain changes made to the cheques issued by the Bank. However, these changes are available only in cheque books issued after August 2011. If you have obtained the cheque book prior to this, the cheques will not be valid after December 31, 2012.

Reserve bank of India standardize and increase the security features of the cheque book. This is called 'CTS 2010 Standard Cheques'.

How to Identify a CTS 2010 complaint cheque

This include quality of paper, ink, bank logo and pantograph etc. If the cheques you currently hold have the following features, they will be valid after the given date.

"Please sign above" is mentioned on cheque leaf on the lower right-hand side.

A wave like design is embossed on the left-hand side of Cheque leafClick here to see the new cheque format.

Also refer
How Non CTS 2010 Standard cheques will affect your Mutual Fund Investment!

Additionally, any post-dated cheques issued by you and due after December 31, 2012 will need to be replaced by the fresh cheques meeting the above mentioned guidelines.

RBI Notification on Standardisation and Enhancement of Security Features in Cheque Forms-Migrating to CTS 2010 standards

Reserve Bank of India has advised Banks to withdraw non-CTS 2010 standards cheques in circulation before December 31,2012 and implement 'Standardisation and Enhancement of Security Features in Cheque Forms'.