Fed’s Payment Figures Show Surprising Slowdown in the Check’s Decline
In case you missed it – and you may have, given that it was released just before the long Christmas holiday – the Federal Reserve’s latest Payments Study showed a remarkable turn in fortune for the paper check. While check usage had been plummeting for decades, the latest official figures revealed that it suddenly leveled off in 2016, slowing at about a third the rate it had in previous years.
What caused the surprise turnaround in fortunes for that most old-fashioned of payment methods? Our feature article on the Deluxe Corp. blog takes an in-depth look at the reasons behind the change, and what it means for retail banking and branch strategies going forward.
