New Standards on Check Writing Format

The Philippine Clearing House Corporation (PCHC) released a series of circulars in relation to the standardization of format in writing details on checks.

Effective 01 July 2025, checks that do not comply with the following rules shall be returned when negotiated:

• use the revised check design (refer to this separate advisory)

  • exempted from this rule are post-dated checks that have been warehoused with LDB on or before 01 May 2024

• write the date in MM-DD-YYYY format (e.g 12-25-2025)

• do not write any special characters such as asterisk (*) before or after the amount in figures

• amount in words can be written with or without the word "Only" at the end

• special characters may be added before or after the amount

  • exempted from the last four rules above are post-dated checks that have been warehoused with LDB on or before 01 July 2025

If you have checks that may conflict with the above rules, please get in touch with:

• your LDB branch of account (for LDB checking accounts)

• your Account Officer (for LDB loan accounts)

See the full copy of the related circulars below:

• 2025-07-02 MC.3887 Clarifications on Strict Enforcement of the Non-Acceptance of Checks with Invalid Date Format & Unnecessary Special Characters

• 2025-06-25 MC.3885 Strict Enforcement of Non-Acceptance of Checks with Invalid Date Format and Unnecessary Special Characters

• 2024-12-17 MC.3857 Non-Acceptance of Checks with Invalid Date Format and Those with Unnecessary Special Characteristics

• 2024-07-02 MC.3821 Reminder on Writing Information on Checks for Deposit Clearing

• 2024-06-03 MC.3814 Moratorium on Non-Acceptance of Checks with Non-Essential Symbols or Marks or Details

• 2024-05-14 MC.3811 Moratorium on Non-acceptance of Checks with Incorrect Issue Date Format

• 2024-05-09 MC.3808 Clarification on the Implementation of the New Check Design