The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has rolled out a tougher sanctions regime to curb the rising incidence of dud cheques across the financial system.
Under the new directive, customers who issue dud cheques for the first time will be fined 10 percent of the cheque’s face value and placed under monitoring for a year.
Second and third-time offenders will pay 15 and 20 percent levies respectively.
Beyond financial penalties, repeat offenders will face severe restrictions including a three-year ban from issuing cheques, a one-year suspension from accessing new credit facilities and blacklisting by credit reference bureaus as high-risk issuers.
The new regime, which replaces the 2021 directive, took effect Tuesday, October 14, 2025.
“Bank of Ghana has observed with grave concern the high issuance of dud cheques by some customers of banks and SDIs. This development has consequential effects on the acceptance of cheques for transactions. To discourage this malpractice, and to sustain confidence in the payment system, the Bank of Ghana has revised the sanctioning regime in respect of issuance of dud cheques for strict compliance by banks and SDIs”, the statement from the Central Bank mentioned.
The central bank has instructed all banks and specialised deposit-taking institutions to report monthly on dud cheque cases and display the new sanctions in their banking halls and websites.
According to the Bank of Ghana, the move is aimed at restoring public trust in cheque transactions and reinforcing discipline within the financial sector.