MUMBAI, July 3: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in order to remove some of the difficulties in the encashment of dividend warrants, interest warrants and refund orders issued by large companies, has advised banks that they could relax the ceiling amount of Rs 10,000 prescribed for an instrument payable `at par' and the number of designated branches on merits of each case for select clients.

The decision to exceed the celling amount of the instruments to be covered under the facility or to increase the number of designated branches should, however, have the approval of the board/management committee of the bank concerned.

The Reserve Bank had placed some restrictions on banks following a major fraud involving a large amount by misutilising the `at par' facility granted by some banks. The restrictions included, among others, prescription of a ceiling of Rs 10,000 on the amount of an instrument payable `at par'.

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