Chances are that many financial institutions and service providers have identified faster/instant payments and other leading edge technology improvements as key strategic priorities for the future. While advancements to the nation’s payment system are certainly top of mind, financial services professionals also face challenges in planning for check services as part of their broad strategic planning efforts.
In a white paper titled, “Check Relevance Sustains Issues Facing the Industry: Don’t Exclude Checks from Payments Strategic Planning Just Yet (PDF),” staff from both ECCHO® and Federal Reserve Financial Services address topics surrounding the check business and make the argument that checks will remain important to the payments industry for as long as they are in use.
The paper reviews historical and current check usage and presents several key issues facing check today including:
- Departing check knowledge
- Late returns
- Duplicates and managing risk
- Electronically created items
- Potential future changes to rules and regulations
As acknowledged in the closing section of the paper, the authors did not intend to provide an exhaustive list of check business topics; rather, to encourage industry discussion on future check use and additional challenges that may face the check industry in the coming years. We hope that readers will find the paper timely and focused, and spark discussion at upcoming industry events.
Action Item:
Read the white paper (PDF) now and share and discuss it with others in your organization
Note
ECCHO is a registered mark of The Clearing House Payments Company, L.L.C.
