Reduced Check Volume

The Federal Reserve has released a study showing that electronic-payments, such as debit cards and credit cards, have grown significantly over the past two decades. CardLine reports that check payments fell from 85 percent of all noncash payments in 1979 to about 60 percent today. Changes in the composition of noncash payments are shown in the accompanying table. Over the 22 years, checks declined from 86 percent of noncash payments to about 60 percent. The portion of transactions generated by electronic payments rose from five percent to 29.5 percent over the period. Credit card payments comprised about half of all electronic payments in 2000 and $1.23 trillion in volume. Debit cards made up about 8.3 billion transactions worth $348 billion.