"Instead of exchanging bank cheques for paper, it'll be funds transfer for data."That's how Simon Libbis, CEO of the national electronic conveyancing service (NECS), describes the way in which banks and financial institutions will settle the payment part of future property transactions.And he's not talking about next century either, because Australia's banks have recently given the government-backed NECS project a real kick along with a proposed new solution for their part of the long and complex conveyancing chain.The proposal is that banks will verify customers account details ahead of settlement only when the transaction is worth more than $25,000.The solution is critical to the success of e-conveyancing, because Australia's banks have hitherto flatly refused to allow outside parties access to their customer databases to enable bank account details to be verified.That access, ahead of settlement, had been thought critical to the success of any integrated conveyancing system.That's because if buyers (or their conveyancing agents) can't confirm the sellers' bank account details before settlement, e-conveyancing could see funds being paid into the wrong account.Just as with the "pay anyone" system used for everyday retail internet banking, when inaccurate account details are keyed in and funds are paid into the wrong account, correcting the situation can be a costly and lengthy process.So this issue has held up Australia's proposed national e-conveyancing system for some time.Even so, over the past few years a lot of work has been done to develop and finalize electronic message standards and system specifications. As well as banks, myriad other players have been involved in the development efforts.Private sector players involved include lawyers, conveyancers and mortgage processors. In the public sector an even larger cast is involved, made more diverse by the fact that property transactions are a state government responsibility.The large cast of players has meant that developing a national conveyancing system has been a long-running project.The current NECS initiative kicked-off in 2005, backed by both federal and state governments through the Council of Australian Governments.Managed by a National eConveyancing Office based in Melbourne, the project has periodically been afflicted by highly-publicised criticism, and questions about progress.But this year has seen a number of well-attended workshops held all around Australia and increasing indications of real progress.Indeed, Simon Libbis told The Sheet the NECS project will soon move into an implementation phase, with a government -owned service company set up to take the project to the next level.Banks are certainly hoping that the project will succeed, and not just because there are potentially huge savings in mortgage processing, and business benefits from getting rid of a lot of bank cheques. Some estimates have suggested the savings to industry could amount to as much as $250 million a year.The practical realities of settling property transactions are, with today's paper-based lodgement and settlement systems, quite simply painfully fragmented, costly and mistake-ridden.That's why Libbis is confident that, once the system has been agreed upon, banks will be enthusiastic participants."If we can take away the pain of settlement then the banks will