Cheque use in decline as over one million fewer used this year

The Banking and Payments Federation (BPFI) says there were 7.8 million cheque payments in the first quarter of last year.

However, there were just 6.6 million in the first three months of this year.

Jill Murphy, from the BPFI, says cheques still won't be abolished any time soon:

“6.6 is still a big figure, proving that there remains a place in society for cheques for both consumers and businesses.

What’s important from the industry’s perspective is that there’s full awareness of the alternative options that are available, given the manual nature of check processing, it also tends to be a more expensive product to use.”