Furthermore, processing costs are low: about 30 cents per transaction, half the cost of clearing a cheque.

ECONOMIST: Debit cards

The Payments Council said the cheque clearing system would only be closed once acceptable alternatives had been devised - and more consultation is expected in the future.

BBC: Cheque replacement views sought

It has plans to modernise the undercapitalised banking system, which currently has no facilities for electronic payments and only a rudimentary process for cheque-clearing.

ECONOMIST: Struggling to pick up the pieces | The

SNCF's problem: the euro will still lack a pan-European cheque-clearing system.

ECONOMIST: Jeux avec fronti��res

As now, anyone paid by cheque will deposit it in their bank, to be sent on to various clearing houses, which route the cheque back to the issuer's bank for payment approval and the transfer of funds.

ECONOMIST: America's new law on cheques

In the mid-1980s, when MasterCard entered the market, the clearing system between banks in different cities was (and is) almost non-existent: a cheque could take up to a month to clear, and many sellers would not release goods until it did.

ECONOMIST: Who��d have credited it?