British Banks are drawing up plans to stop accepting cheques and instead demand payment by plastic or electronic transfer.
Consumer groups and businesses have attacked the proposals, raising the prospect of a “Save the cheque” campaign to protect a 300 year old method of payment.
Although the number of cheques written each day has fallen by nearly two-thirds in the past 20 years, to 3.8m a day, many small traders and older people still rely on cheque books to pay bills. The Payments Council, a panel drawn from the big banks, will vote on December 16 on whether to abolish the cheque. It has prepared for this for two years, already announcing that cheque guarantee cards will be axed in June 2011.
A source close to the panel said “A lot of work has gone into getting ready to do this for 2018 and its pretty certain to go through. The only thing that might delay this is politics. After all, you may have noticed bankers are not exactly popular at the moment.”
An announcement confirming the move is expected in January. It would save the banks hundreds of millions of pounds. Cheques cost up to $1 to process-four times as much as electronic payments. Paul Smee, chief executive of the Payments Council, said it had already talked with interested parties about the plan.”We will have to show that no one will lose out,”. “So far no group consulted has said 2018 is not feasible”. Mapping out how UK might move from a society where cheques are employed for almost 1 in 25 payments to one where there is no need to use a cheque is no small task. One plan is for a town to be picked as UK’s first “cheque-free zone”, to test the impact. Chip and Pin card-security systems were piloted in Northampton before becoming mandatory in February 2006[Sunday times London]
What is your take on the above subject especially if it is applied to India and other countries globally?Comments are welcome.
