The Reserve Bank of India has laid down certain enhanced security features and standardized arenas for banker's cheques to aid in the easy processing of cheques with the help of optical technology.

The written proforma of the revised norms or Cheque Truncation System (CTS)-2010 standard will be generated later, the RBI said. The Indian Bank's Association (IBA) and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) are to work together towards advising banks about the additional features of cheques.

This step has been taken by the RBI as a measure to curb the increasing intensity of fraudulous activities in banking industry in the form of fake cheques. RBI feels that the more standardized the cheques become for all banks the lesser would be the chances of counterfeiting.

"Homogeneity of security features is expected to act as a deterrent against cheque frauds," RBI said.

Standardized features used would include some very basic things like the quality and size of paper used in making cheques, watermark, printing logo of the bank in invisible ink, clutter free background and ultraviolet imaging.

Setting specifications for the quality of paper to be used, the RBI said that the paper should be image friendly and should be sensitive to acids, alkalis, bleaches and solvents and show visible signs if any kind of tampering is done with the paper. The RBI also said that the paper should not glow under UV light so that the feel of the cheque is same across all banks.

With reference to the use of watermarks, RBI has said that right from the manufacturing stage, all cheques should have a standardized watermark with the words "CTS-INDIA". The mark should be such that it can be seen when held against any light source. The shape of the watermark should be oval and the diameter should be in the range of 2.6-3 cm. Each cheque must hold at least one full watermark.

The logo of banks would be printed in invisible ink, the RBI said.