The country's second largest bank CIMB Bank has encountered a technical glitch with its new cheque clearing system, causing headache for thousands of its customers.

The bank today confirmed that its new cheque clearing system has been plagued with problems since last week.

According to the bank's call-centre, it encountered the technical glitch beginning June 13 and it has since set up an internal help desk to deal with the situation.

A customer who requested anonymity claimed that a RM250,000 cheque deposited on June 15, showed up as half a million in the customer's account two days later.

He then had two cheques bounce, which halted a business order. His account balance now denotes an overdraft.

The bank has helped to resolve the initial problems, however his other cheques began bouncing. As of this morning, the client has an inaccurate overdraft balance on record.

The bank said that the problem had been rectified as of today, but it is asking customers to contact them if they experience any difficulties.

Customers in dark

Since the bank has not informed the customers about the glitch, or have posted a notice on its website, account-holders have been left in the dark until they spot an error themselves.

CIMB Bank in a written statement - after receiving a query from Malaysiakini today - conceded that the problems emanated from the implementation of a new cheque clearing system, where the facility is now outsourced.

"We experienced technical problems last week after implementing our new cheque clearing system.

"These problems have been overcome, and our system is back operating normally today, allowing us to clear most of the backlog of uncleared cheques," the statement read.

The bank gave no other details on the nature of the problems or if they were caused by the newly outsourced partner who handled cheque clearings.

CIMB Bank has more than five million consumers and it is learnt that the problem is only confined to those in the Klang Valley.