Federal Reserve Bulletin, Volume 93, 2007 Current Bulletin

Recent Payment Trends in the United States

1. Noncash payments in the United States, selected years
Billions of payments
Year Check Electronic
1971 23.0 .5
1979 32.8 5.5
1995 49.5 14.7
2000 41.9 30.6
2003 37.3 44.1
2006 30.5 62.8

Note: Check payments are checks paid, that is, checks that were on-us (involving only one depository institution) and checks processed through the interbank check-clearing system, including original paper checks and truncated checks presented either electronically or as paper substitute checks. Includes checks paid by depository institutions, U.S. Treasury checks, and U.S. Postal Service money orders. Checks converted to ACH payments are included in electronic payments.

Sources: The 1971 check figure is from a survey conducted for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and reported in William R. Powers (1976), "A Survey of Bank Check Volumes," Journal of Bank Research (Winter); for all other years, Federal Reserve Board data.

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