Electronic Payment Surge

The Federal Reserve tracks interesting information such as how much money is moved by checks and how much by electronic transfers. In the world of electronic payments, the watershed has happened. For the first time since electronic payments were invented, the number of electronic transactions exceeded the number of checks. The Federal Reserve has conducted a study which confirms that electronic payments now exceed payments by check for the first time in history. Check payments numbered 36.7 billion while electronic payments reached 44.5 billion, a significant difference. The trends also show that use of checks is declining at a rate of 4.3% while the use of electronic payments is increasing by 13.2 percent.Part of this difference may be attributable to the use of debit cards. Debit card transactions numbered 15.6 billion, an increase of 23.5%. All of this means that banking and what customers expect is undergoing dramatic change.

Copyright © 2004 Compliance Action. Originally appeared in Compliance Action, Vol. 9, No. 15, 12/04