Cheque volume falls further

The use of cheques continues to fall steadily. The 16.7 million cheques written by businesses and consumers in April was the smallest number ever recorded by the Reserve Bank's cheque payments' data series.

According to the RBA figures, released yesterday, customers wrote an average of 17.5 million cheques a month during the first four months of this year.

That volume is down 13.4 per cent from the average of 20.2 million cheques a month written in 2011 and down 24 per cent from the average of 22.9 million cheques a month written in 2010.

A decade ago, volumes of 50 million cheques a month were common.

The RBA figures show that the volume of cheques issued by financial institutions is falling at a similar rate.

Last month, the Australian Payments Clearing Association issued the results of a review of the cheque system, after consulting with industry and consumers on the question of whether cheques should be phased out.

Its conclusion was that it was not appropriate to take action to end the use of cheques. Its view was that cheques would die a slow death as rising unit costs made them an increasingly expensive form of payment.

APCA said banks should look for ways to improve access to electronic payments for those groups that continue to rely on cheques.