In this weeks blog post we will start by discussing the popularity of the cheque, our main aim is to find out if anyone in 10 years time will ask for the cheque.
We will discuss why the market share has devolved, what the threats to the cheque are, and what new technologies may assassinate or perhaps revive this most ancient of modern monetary transaction medium.
The popularity or usability of the "cheque" has dropped fast (70% reduction since 1990). For a tool that heralded the new age of banking, it is now exhausted and withering fast (we are still talking about the Cheque, not DC).
The first cheque was first written in 1659 on February the 16th, reference, coincidentally the same day and year that Samuel Pepys ate scallops and went to the pub reference.
They did of course account for a disgustingly large amount of transactions even in recent years, although, arguably in 1990 cheque payments reached their denouement with 4 billion payments made in said year, an amount not surpassed since reference.
To give you some tangible perspective of the number 4 billion; there are 4 billion inches from the most northerly point of Alaska to the most southerly tip of South America, and here is an example of a common cheque.
1990 was an important year for cheques, not only was that the year of the cheque, it was also the year that banks realised that the cheques days were numbered. Predicting a peak and gradual descent into obscurity the banks needed to create a new method of transferring capital, this heralded the age of magnetic ink.
However, magnetic ink only staved off the inevitable decline, whilst other technologies were being created and developed, it could be argued that magnetic ink did little to suture the hemorrhaging of the beleaguered cheque. The final nail in the coffin for our friend the cheque was the introduction of ....
Tune in next week for part 2.
Enjoy your weekend,
Prof Participant
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