Australia to phase out checks by 2030
- Reference: 1686121657
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/06/07/australia_phases_out_checks/
- Source link:
The death of checks was recommended in [1]A Strategic Plan for Australia's Payments System , delivered on Wednesday and endorsed by treasurer Jim Chalmers in a speech announcing the decision the same day.
"We know that the usage of checks has been declining, with a 90 percent decline in volumes over the last ten years alone," Chalmers said, at an event run by the Australian Banking Association. The Strategic Plan states that 0.2 percent of non-cash payments in Australia are made with checks, and observes that as volumes decrease, the cost of handling them rises.
[2]
Chalmers joined the dots and pointed out that the demise of checks has come because "digital transactions are easier, cheaper, and more accessible. In fact, currently, 98 percent of retail checks could be serviced through internet or mobile banking. And 100 percent of those used in institutional and commercial settings."
[3]
[4]
"All this means that leaving checks in the system is an increasingly costly way of servicing a declining fraction of payments."
Australia's government will lead the way by reforming its own business processes that rely on checks by 2028.
[5]Australian cyber-op attacked ISIL with the terrifying power of Rickrolling
[6]Australia fines tech companies for exploiting foreign tech workers
[7]Atlassian says 'Don't #@!% the Planet' so it can keep making money
[8]Australia asks Twitter how it will mod content without staff, gets ghosted
The Strategy document points out that checks "continue to be used by certain cohorts of the population, particularly older Australians and those living in regional or rural areas or with limited digital proficiency or connectivity." Charities, the document states, "take a large proportion of donations through checks from their donors."
But the Treasurer and the document he delivered both expressed confidence that Australia will survive the demise of checks – because its New Payments Platform (NPP) improves clearing between financial institutions and allows real-time peer-to-peer payments between accountholders using just an email address or phone number as an identifier.
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For individual users, NPP transactions appear in their preferred banking apps within seconds – speed that has seen Australia's Reserve Bank ponder whether a central bank digital currency would improve on the platform.
The Strategy does not, however, suggest cash should be phased out.
"Cash is still widely accepted as a means of payment by merchants, used as a store of value, and provides resilience to the payments system during outages where digital forms of money cannot be used," the document states. The Aussie government has therefore adopted a "she'll be right" philosophy and committed to ensuring ongoing access to cash.
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But all checks in Australia will soon bounce. ®
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[1] https://treasury.gov.au/publication/p2023-404960
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZIBVQwd3lpFsKUbE8b3ugQAAAMk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[5] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/05/australian_cyber_offense_techniques_revealed/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/31/australia_tech_worker_exploitation/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/24/atlassian_sustainability_guide/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/17/twitter_australia_regulation/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZIBVQwd3lpFsKUbE8b3ugQAAAMk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZIBVQwd3lpFsKUbE8b3ugQAAAMk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Checks?
Hmm.
Better check to see if you have any cheques lying around!
Re: Checks?
Exceedingly poor show, El Reg. It's true that cheques aren't being used so much these days, but that's no excuse for spelling the word the silly way!
Re: Checks?
It is definitely not the antipodean spelling
Re: Checks?
Came to say the same thing.
Saw headline "...to phase out checks" and thought what checks? All checks? Is it now a free for all? No passport control, no safety checks, no preflight checks, no quality checks?
Wahooo, chaos!
Re: Checks?
Whilst I fully agree, and the headline is even more misleading, it could be worse... imagine if the were phasing out Gregorys!
(For the colonies, cockney rhyming slang: Gregory Peck = cheque; rubber gregory = cheque that bounces)
Bouncing checks
Are they like cheques?
Re: Bouncing checks
Did you mean this Bouncing Czech? https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/robert-maxwell-legacy-of-the-bouncing-czech/35131452.html
There's the English spelling and then there are mistakes.
Time for...
an obligatory kangaroo joke?
Cheques
Why would someone go through a press release and systematically change a word to the wrong spelling?
Aussies write cheques (although the last time I needed one was to buy a house). Check is what you do to your pocket for the house keys before you go outside. Those little marks you put in boxes on forms are called ticks.
They still exist?
Wow, do checks still exist? Last time I saw one was in the 1990s, when I did work practice at the local bank branch office. I believe that in the two weeks I was there, we had one or two people depositing checks into their accounts.
Re: They still exist?
Well my HMRC tax refund came by cheque, ERNIE pays out with a 'Warrant' which is identical to a cheque, British Gas sent me a refund cheque so I guess they still exist and have benefit - and long may they do so.
Re: They still exist?
Last time I encountered one was in a supermarket in France, when some old bat was paying for her 6 Euros of groceries with a cheque. And that was in 2009. I think even the french have moved on.
Re: They still exist?
And therein lies the problem. Phase them out too soon, and you effectively deprive a section of society (the 'old bats', as you quaintly describe them) of a payment method that they understand and trust. I hope it doesn't happen in the UK for at least another 30-40 years.
Re: They still exist?
Idiot now. Old bat soon enough.
Re: They still exist?
They sure do. I sold an investment last month and a "cheque" duly arrived in the post 4 days later. Why? Because I had not given them my back account details at least six months prior to my decision to sell my ISA. All part of their anti-money laundering rules they said. I didn't care. As long as I got the money everything was A-OK.
I write 1-2 of the things a year as presents for the Grandchildren. They have accounts but I don't know where so I leave it up to the parents to deposit the things.
What checks are these?
Border control? Car safety? Banning of chessboards?
Oh, you mean cheques!
Banking apps
"For individual users, NPP transactions appear in their preferred banking apps within seconds..."
How does this work when my preferred app is the old fashioned bank book? I still have my BankSA passbook and a Nationwide passbook here in Blighty. Both have money in them.
Re: Banking apps
If someone were generous enough to send you a direct deposit, it would be printed out in your passbook the next time you took it into a branch to transact, backdated to the day it happened, along with any interest accrued in the meantime.
You'll need to publish your BSB number(s) for there to be any chance of that.
Don't know what you've lost till it's gone.....
I find cheques are still one of the best and easiest ways to exchange money with people. Call me an old fart, but the less people I have to give my bank details to in order for them to transfer money to me, the more secure I feel. Similar if I owe money to people - I don't want to be the custodian and responsible for safekeeping their sortcode and account details.
I certainly will not give any humongous corporate entity (gas, 'leccy, etc) the ability to direct debit from my account any amount the want whenever they want. Those companies could not care less about accuracy or what they do. I have friends who have erroneously had thousands of pounds direct debit from their account and then spent months trying to get it back, evenm after they have got companies to admit it was an error.
The only reason why cheques are being dropped is because the banks and big companies cannot be arsed doing something that takes effort - in a similar way to having real branches. They must save millions per year by closing a branch, yet none of that money comes back to customers.
Re: Don't know what you've lost till it's gone.....
I still use cheques.
I rent a garage and pay each month using a cheque.
Also I am on the committee of a car club and when the club pay expenses they do in the form of a cheque as it needs to signed by two people and they can’t do that online yet.
But these days I pay them in using the bank app.
Re: Don't know what you've lost till it's gone.....
"The only reason why cheques are being dropped is because the banks and big companies cannot be arsed doing something that takes effort - in a similar way to having real branches."
Same with cash - try paying it in. Oh yes Sir, as the owner of a small business you can pay in cash but only if you shut your shop before 2pm, travel 15 miles to the nearest branch, pay for parking, stand in the 30 minute queue (in the branch that nobody uses apparently) to pay in your cash then drive back and reopen your shop ...
Cash is next to go - as simple person-to-person transfer it holds its face value and doesn't make the banks money but EVERY credit/bank card transfer gives them an automatic cut ...
Musical Cheques
I'm with Kim Wilde on this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNjFm7CoE84
Checks?
Checks? Even if that is indeed the antipodean spelling (which Bing chat assures me it is not, in this context, and in the linked "Strategic Plan for Australia’s Payments System" PDF, it is spelled "cheque"), as a British site, I feel El Reg should stick to "cheque".