The Use of Checks and Other Noncash Payment Instruments in the United States
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The Use of Checks and Other Noncash Payment Instruments in the United States. Geoffrey R. Gerdes and Jack K. Walton II, of the Taken together, the data show that an estimated Board's Division of Reserve Bank Operations and 32.8 billion checks were paid in the United States Payment Systems, prepared this article. Thomas in 1979, 49.5 billion in 1995, and 42.5 billion in Guerin andAmin Rokni provided research assistance. 2000 (chart 1). The exact year in which check use peaked is unknown, but it appears that the number Over the past several decades, the payments industry paid began to decline sometime in the mid-1990s. By has undergone significant change. New electronic 2000, retail electronic payments had gained consider- payment instruments have been introduced, and the able ground. Nonetheless, checks remained the pre- means for making electronic payments have become dominant type of retail noncash payment. Checks increasingly available for use in everyday commerce. also continued to account for a large proportion of Further, the adaptation of technology has driven the total value of retail noncash payments in 2000, down the costs of processing electronic payments though the real value of total checks paid had relative to check payments. Partial statistics and anec- declined since 1979. dotal evidence suggest that consumers and businesses are increasingly using electronic payments. Neverthe- less, the paper check continues to be the most com- OVERALL TRENDS IN THE USE OF CHECKS. monly used type of noncash payment instrument In the United States, most noncash payments are in the U.S. economy. Checks' share in noncash pay- made using checks, credit cards, debit cards, and the ments has been declining, however, and recent evi- dence suggests that the total number of checks paid electronic payment system called the automated has been declining as well. clearinghouse (ACH)—collectively referred to as retail noncash payments. Consumers, businesses, To shed light on the use of checks and other noncash payment instruments in the United States, [note: 1]. The term check refers to a demand draft drawn on or payable the Federal Reserve recently sponsored three related through or at a depository institution or a federal, state, or local surveys collectively referred to as the Retail Pay- government entity, including cashiers and certified checks, travelers checks, money orders, and rebate checks. The ACH is an electronic ments Research Project. The survey data were used payments network that enables the processing of credit and debit to estimate the number and value of payments made payments, such as payroll and prearranged bill payments, between in 2000 using checks and several types of electronic depository institutions. [end of note.] payment instruments as well as to study the character- istics of individual checks paid in 2000. The magni- Chart 1. Number of check and retail electronic payment tude and diversity of the samples also enabled a transactions, selected years. [bar graph plotting four data: retail ACH, credit card, comparison of check use across type and size of billion.Indebit 1979 card, Incheck 1995, and was check. check about was 33 about billion, 49 creditbillion, card debit about card 5 debitabout card32 billion.billion, about Incredit 9 2000,billion, card check credit about was card10 about billion, about 42 16retail billion, billion, ACH depository institution and across geographic regions. retail ACH about 5 billion.] In addition, the data provided a basis for looking at changes in noncash payments since 1979, when the Federal Reserve collected data on checks for an analysis of the check-clearing system, and since 1995, when the Federal Reserve collected data on checks for a report to the Congress on funds availabil- ity and check fraud. The surveys are described in detail in the appendix. NOTE. Darrel Parke and Samuel Slowinski, of the Board's Division of Research and Statistics, provided valuable assistance with the production and interpretation of the statistical estimates. [end of note.] Table 1. Number and value of retail noncash payments, 2000 and acceptability of alternatives to cash influenced the proportion of payments made with retail noncash Number:Number: Value:Value: instruments. From 1979 to 2000, the number of retail Type of payment Billions of Percent of Trillions of Percent of noncash payments grew approximately 3 percent a payments total dollars total year, about the same as the rate of growth of real Check 42.5 59.5 39.3 84.4 GDP. Hence, both the number of retail noncash pay- Retail electronic payments 28.9 40.5 7.3 15.6 ments and the amount of economic output roughly Debit card 8.3 11.6 .3 .7 Credit card: doubled over the period. Over the same period, the General-purpose 12.3 17.2 1.1 2.3 number of households increased from 78.8 million to 2.7 3.8 .2 .3 Credit card:Private-label Retail ACH 5.6 7.9 5.7 12.2 105.5 million, for an annual rate of growth of almost Total 71.5 100.0 46.6 100.0 1.5 percent. NOTE. In this and subsequent tables, components may not sum to totals, and The growth in retail noncash payments leading up calculations may not yield averages and percentages shown, because of to the mid-1990s may have resulted from a general rounding. Note increase in payments1 about check: Include, an sincreas checks paied biyn depositorthe numbey institutionsr o,f U.S. Treasury checks, and postal money orders. households with checking accounts, and the replace- Note 2about General purpose creditmen cards:t of some cash payments by noncash payment Includes co-branded credit cards, charge cards, co-branded charge cards, secured credit cards, travel and entertainment cards, commercial cards, and new alternatives. About 9.2 billion more retail electronic payment technologies that route transactions through the card associations' networks. payments were made in 1995 than in 1979. The Note number of checks 3 about privateals label credit cards: Includeo ross retailee considerablr cards, oil company ovey cardsr th, third-parte y fleet cards, and cards issued by third-party receivable owners. Note period. In fact, abou4 on retail ACH:t Exclude 16.7s billioACH transactionn mores classifiecheckd sa s wercash concentratioe n and disburse- ment, which, for purposes of this study, are not considered payments. paid in 1995. However, the number of checks paid as a share of all retail noncash payments declined, from and government entities made about 71.5 billion 85.7 percent to 77.1 percent. retail noncash payments in 2000 (table 1). The total The decline in the number of checks as a share of value of these payments was about $46.6 trillion, retail noncash payments continued over the period approximately four and three-fourths times U.S. gross 1995 to 2000, and the number of checks paid declined domestic product (GDP) for that year. Checks were as well, from an estimated 49.5 billion in 1995 to the predominant type of retail noncash payment, 42.5 billion in 2000. (In comparison, the annual accounting for 59.5 percent of these payments by number of electronic payments increased 14.2 billion number. By comparison, checks constituted 85.7 per- over the period.) Whether the number of checks paid cent of retail noncash payments in 1979 (table 2). in nearby years was higher or lower than in 1995 is Although the number of check payments increased unknown. However, these estimates suggest that the from 1979 to 2000, the number of checks as a share number of checks paid peaked during the mid-1990s. of retail noncash payments declined about 26 percent- age points. [note: 2]. The proportion of households without a checking account fell Growth in overall economic activity and popula- from 18.7 percent in 1989 to 13.2 percent in 1998. See Arthur B. tion led to a general growth in payments, including Kennickell, Martha Starr-McCluer, and Brian J. Surette, ''Recent Changes in U.S. Family Finances: Results from the 1998 Survey of cash payments, between 1979 and 2000. Such factors Consumer Finances,'' Federal Reserve Bulletin, vol. 86 (January as technological change and increased availability 2000), pp. 1-29. [end of note.] Table 2. Number and rate of growth of retail noncash payments, selected years Number (billions): NumberNumbe r(billions): (billions) : GrowtGrowthh (percent(percent, annua, l Growth (percent annual Type of payment rate): 1979-2000 1979 1995 2000 annua; rate): 1995-2000 rate): 1979-95 Check 32.8 49.5 42.5 2.6 -3.0 1.2 Retail electronic payments 5.5 14.7 28.9 6.3 14.6 na 8.2 na Debit card .0 1.4 8.3 41.8 Credit card General-purpose 1.5 7.8 12.3 10.9 9.5 10.5 Private-label 3.8 2.6 2.7 -2.3 .9 -1.6 Retail ACH .2 2.8 5.6 19.0 15.1 18.0 Total 38.3 64.2 71.5 3.3 2.2 3.0 NOTE. See table 1, notes 1-4. SOURCES. Federal Reserve; National Automated Clearing House Association; Nilson Report, selected issues; and ATM & Debit News, EFT Data Book, 2002 edition. The apparent decline in the number of checks paid Table 3. Number and value of checks paid, between 1995 and 2000 was likely not driven by a by type of institution, selected years change in the general level of economic activity. Memo: Value Transaction Both years were part of an economic expansion that Number Year and type of institution (trillions deposits (billions) began in the early 1990s and peaked in March 2001 of dollars) (billions (according to the National Bureau of Economic of dollars) Research), and spending by consumers and busi- 1979: nesses, which make the predominant number of pay- Commercial banks 31.4 n.a.