Check Services

Major retailers across the nation are deploying check conversion solutions - the process of converting paper checks to electronic items at the point of sale. Check conversion is an important trend considering that checks account for the majority of non-cash payments for most retailers. While check writing is growing by almost 2% annually, check fraud is growing at over 12% (The Nilson Report).

Whether your needs are based on a traditional guarantee service or conversion of checks to an electronic transaction, Merchant Services has a solution for you.

Consumer Behavior

40% of the population is totally check dependent
The face value of the checks written has increased 25% during the last five years
Total face value of checks written through 2005 will exceed 14.3 trillion dollars
Consumers prefer checks four to one over debit cards
88% of the population, over 174 million consumers, have a check account; only half of those have a debit or credit card
72% of consumers believe that their check use will increase or stay the same over the next year
53% of retailers are reporting continued check growth (on-line survey by Stores Magazine and the Reid System)
Checks represent 24% of all retail sales as a significant part of the overall payment system
Americans write an average of 25 checks per month

Market Conditions

Volume: Last year over $2.6 trillion in checks were written to purchase goods and services at point-of-sale
Trends: The Federal Reserve predicts the number of check transactions will exceed 73 billion items by the year 2005 (currently at 48 billion)
Electronic Check Conversion Statistics: Year 1999: 600,000 paper checks were converted into electronic transactions Year 2000: 32 million paper checks were converted into electronic transactions involving only 50,000 merchants