The second was the government's delay in presenting a bill to extend and increase a tax on bank cheques.

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If customers notice any difference because of Check 21, it will be that their bank statements carry photocopies of cheques, not originals.

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Paying money directly into bank accounts should be safer than bunging cheques in the mail.

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In a separate development, Cyprus announced a partial relaxation of capital controls, raising the ceiling for financial transactions that did not require central bank approval and allowing the use of cheques to 9, 000 euros per month.

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No-one has travellers' cheques any more - they have bank cards that work in most cash machines across Europe.

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Today, most consumers use a bank merely to deposit their salaries and to write cheques against the account.

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This is partly the fault of a primitive banking system: there are no cheques, few credit cards, and paying by bank-transfer means an hour or so in a smelly queue.

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