Cheque abolition decision should not be made by Payments Council, says MP

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 5 Nov 2010

The campaign to stop the abolition of cheques took a new form this week as a Liberal Democrat MP put a bill to Parliament suggesting an overhaul of the way the decision is being made.

Liberal Democrat MP David Ward introduced a bill to Parliament on Tuesday proposing that rather than allow the Payments Council, a body he insisted was not independent, have authority over the future of cheques, the decision should fall under the remit of the Financial Services Authority.

Ward expressed concern about the potential “major ramifications” of the possible abolition of cheques in 2018, as has been mooted by the Payments Council, telling Parliament that there is still a swathe of society which is reliant on the traditional payment method.

He also suggested that the Council was sealing the fate of cheques by even proposing they be phased out: “The truth is that setting an end date for cheques will inevitably accelerate the process by which businesses stop accepting cheques and individual banks stop issuing them, making the demise of the cheque a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Even with this, he argued, cheques are likely to be in wide use in eight years’ time.

“The Payments Council does not have much confidence in its ability to wring this particular chicken's neck. It has forecast that, whatever it does and whatever we do - including if we are not successful in stopping this action - then even on the cheque's deathbed in 2018, there will still be two million cheque transactions being made every day. Some chicken, some neck,” he said.

The bill will go to second reading on June 17 next year.

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