New figures from Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) show that the use of cheques in Ireland continues to decline.

The banking group said there were 6.6 million payments by cheque in the first three months of 2020, down 15% from 7.8 million a year earlier. Cheque payments have almost halved since the first quarter of 2016.

Electronic

Cheque usage has declined in recent years as both business and consumers move to electronic payments.

The BPFI says consumers, in particular, rely heavily on cards to pay for shopping online and in the store, while they mainly use direct debits to pay their regular bills.

The banking body says Ireland is now one of “only a handful of countries” worldwide where cheques are still regularly used, including Canada, Cyprus, France, Portugal, Singapore, the UK and the US, based on figures from the European Central Bank and the Bank for International Settlements.

Trend

The BPFI’s head of payment schemes, Gill Murphy, said the group expected the trend against cheques to continue.

“At the same time, however, 6.6 million cheque payments this quarter is not insignificant and demonstrates that some consumers and smaller businesses in particular are still in no rush to shred their chequebooks just yet,” she added.