Editing Cheque (section)

=== United Kingdom ===
In the United Kingdom, all cheques must conform to an industry standard detailing layout and font ("[[Cheque and Credit Clearing Company]] (C&CCC) Standard 3"), be printed on a specific weight of paper (CBS1), and contain explicitly defined security features.

Since 1995, all cheque printers must be members of the Cheque Printer Accreditation Scheme (CPAS). The scheme is managed by the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company and requires that all cheques for use in the British clearing process are produced by accredited printers who have adopted stringent security standards.

The rules concerning crossed cheques are set out in Section 1 of the Cheques Act 1992 and prevent cheques being cashed by or paid into the accounts of third parties. On a crossed cheque the words "account payee only" (or similar) are printed between two parallel vertical lines in the centre of the cheque. This makes the cheque non-transferable and is to avoid cheques being endorsed and paid into an account other than that of the named payee. Crossing cheques basically ensures that the money is paid into an account of the intended beneficiary of the cheque.

Following concerns about the amount of time it took banks to clear cheques, the United Kingdom [[Office of Fair Trading]] set up a working group in 2006 to look at the cheque clearing cycle. They produced a report<ref name="OFT"/> recommending maximum times for the cheque clearing which were introduced in UK from November 2007.<ref name="Brignall">{{cite news |first=Brignall |last=Miles |title=Cheque changes leave consumers in the clear |url=https://www.theguardian.com/money/2007/nov/30/consumeraffairs.banks|work=[[The Guardian]] |location=London |date=30 November 2007 |access-date= 26 May 2009}}</ref> In the report the date the credit appeared on the recipient's account (usually the day of deposit) was designated "T". At "T + 2" (two business days afterwards) the value would count for calculation of credit interest or overdraft interest on the recipient's account. At "T + 4" clients would be able to withdraw funds on current accounts or at "T + 6" on savings accounts (though this will often happen earlier, at the bank's discretion). "T + 6" is the last day that a cheque can bounce without the recipient's permission—this is known as "certainty of fate". Before the introduction of this standard (also known as 2-4-6 for current accounts and 2-6-6 for savings accounts), the only way to know the "fate" of a cheque has been "Special Presentation", which would normally involve a fee, where the drawee bank contacts the payee bank to see if the payee has that money at that time. "Special Presentation" had been stated at the time of deposit.

Cheque volumes peaked in 1990 when four billion cheque payments were made. Of these, 2.5&nbsp;billion were cleared through the inter-bank clearing managed by the C&CCC, the remaining 1.5&nbsp;billion being in-house cheques which were either paid into the branch on which they were drawn or processed intra-bank without going through the clearings. As volumes started to fall, the challenges faced by the clearing banks were then of a different nature: how to benefit from technology improvements in a declining business environment.

Although the UK did not adopt the euro as its national currency when other European countries did in 1999, many banks began offering euro denominated accounts with chequebooks, principally to business customers. The cheques can be used to pay for certain goods and services in the UK. The same year, the C&CCC set up the euro cheque clearing system to process euro denominated cheques separately from sterling cheques in Great Britain.

The UK [[Payments Council]] from 30 June 2011 withdrew the existing ''Cheque Guarantee Card Scheme'' in the UK.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13947510 |work=BBC News |title=R.I.P. Cheque guarantee cards |date=29 June 2011}}</ref> This service allowed cheques to be guaranteed at [[point of sales]] up to a certain value, normally £50 or £100, when signed in front of the retailer with the additional cheque guarantee card. This was after a long period of decline in their use in favour of [[debit cards]].

In December 2009 the [[Payments Council]] announced its intention to phase out the use of cheques completely in the UK by October 2018, so long as adequate alternatives were developed.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.paymentscouncil.org.uk/media_centre/press_releases_new/-/page/855/ |title=Press Releases |publisher=Payments Council |access-date=2013-06-03 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100120112829/http://www.paymentscouncil.org.uk/media_centre/press_releases_new/-/page/855/ |archive-date=20 January 2010}}</ref> They intended to perform annual checks on the progress of other payments systems and a final review of the decision would have been held in 2016.<ref>{{cite news |date=16 December 2009 |title=Cheques to be phased out in 2018 |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8414341.stm |access-date=16 December 2009}}</ref> However, the decision was reversed in 2011 after vocal public, political, and industrial opposition, and cheques have remained in use.<ref name="bbc.co.uk">{{cite news |date=12 July 2011 |title=Cheques not to be scrapped after all, banks say |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14122129}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=11 December 2010 |title=Plans to end cheques criticised by banks |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11972334 |access-date=12 December 2010}}</ref>

Since 2001, businesses in the United Kingdom have made more electronic payments than cheque payments. Automated payments rose from 753&nbsp;million in 1995 to 1.1&nbsp;billion in 2001 and cheques declined in that same period of time from 1.14 to 1.1&nbsp;billion payments.<ref name="wanes">{{cite news |date=25 July 2002 |title=Popularity of cheques wanes |work=BBC News |location=London |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2151881.stm |access-date=26 May 2009}}</ref> Most British utility companies charge lower prices to customers who pay by [[direct debit]] than for other payment methods.

The vast majority of British retailers no longer accept cheques as a means of payment. [[Royal Dutch Shell|Shell]] announced in September 2005 that it would no longer accept cheques at their UK petrol stations, a change replicated by other major fuel retailers.<ref name="Shell">{{cite news |date=10 September 2005 |title=Shell bans payment by cheque |work=BBC News |location=London |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/4233002.stm |access-date=26 May 2009}}</ref> Within a year, [[Asda]], [[Boots Group|Boots]], [[Currys]] and [[WH Smith]] had all phased out the acceptance of cheques.<ref name="Chop">{{cite news |date=3 April 2006 |title=Cheques get the chop at Asda |work=The Guardian |agency=Press Association |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/money/2006/apr/03/supermarkets.consumeraffairs |access-date=26 May 2009}}</ref><ref name="High">{{cite news |date=12 September 2006 |title=High Street retailer bans cheques |work=BBC News |location=London |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/5339522.stm |access-date=26 May 2009}}</ref>

In 2016, 432 million inter-bank cheques and credit-items worth £472 billion were processed in the United Kingdom.<ref>{{Cite web |title=2016 UK Payment Statistics |url=http://www.paymentsuk.org.uk/sites/default/files/publication-free/Pages%20from%20UK%20Payment%20Statistics%202016.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170107101042/http://www.paymentsuk.org.uk/sites/default/files/publication-free/Pages%20from%20UK%20Payment%20Statistics%202016.pdf |archive-date=7 January 2017 |access-date=30 September 2019 |publisher=[[Payments UK]]}}</ref> In 2017, 405 million cheques worth £356 billion were used for payments and acquiring cash, an average of 1.2 million cheques per day, with more than 10 million being cleared in Northern Ireland alone. The Cheque and Credit Clearing Company noted that cheques continue to be highly valued for paying tradesmen and utility bills, and play a vital role in business, clubs and societies sectors, with nine in 10 business saying that they received or made payment by cheque on a monthly basis.<ref>{{cite web |title=Cheque Market 2018 |url=https://www.chequeandcredit.co.uk/information-hub/facts-and-figures/cheque-market-2017 |access-date=30 September 2019 |publisher=[[Cheque and Credit Clearing Company]]}}</ref> In 2022, 150 million cheques were used to make payments in the UK, compared to 1.6 billion payments in 2006.<ref name="UKFinance2022">{{cite web|title=Cheque Market 2018 |url=https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/system/files/2022-08/UKF%20Payment%20Markets%20Summary%202022.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230516205816/https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/system/files/2022-08/UKF%20Payment%20Markets%20Summary%202022.pdf|access-date=21 June 2023|url-status=live|archive-date=16 May 2023|publisher=[[UK Finance]]}}</ref> [[UK Finance]] estimates that only 0.2% of payments (70 million transactions) will be made by cheque in 2031.<ref name="UKFinance2022"/>

In June 2014, following a successful trial in the UK by [[Barclays]], the UK government gave the go-ahead for a [[cheque truncation]] system, allowing people to pay in a cheque by taking a photo of it, rather than physically depositing the paper cheque at a bank.<ref>{{cite news |date=25 June 2014 |title=Cheque photo plan gets the go-ahead |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28020733}}</ref> Between 2017 and 2019, the Barclays scheme was rolled out nationwide as the [[Cheque and Credit Clearing Company|Image Clearing System]] which has sped up the processing of cheques, reducing clearing times, and allowing customers to deposit them at ATMs and through mobile and online banking applications.<ref name="UKFinance01">{{cite web |title=UK PAYMENT MARKETS SUMMARY 2022 |url=https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/system/files/2022-08/UKF%20Payment%20Markets%20Summary%202022.pdf |publisher=UK Finance |access-date=22 July 2023 |page=6 |date=August 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Image Clearing System |url=https://www.wearepay.uk/what-we-do/payment-systems/image-clearing-system/ |website=www.wearepay.uk |publisher=Pay.uk |access-date=22 July 2023}}</ref> Mobile banking has modernised the use of cheques; in the first 6 months of 2021, 3.8 million cheques were deposited by [[Lloyds Bank]] customers.<ref name="FTCook" /> Nevertheless, in 2020-21, the use of cheques declined by 19% year on year.<ref name="UKFinance2022" />

Cheques are still held to be a secure and reliable means of payment: cheque fraud in the UK in 2020 totalled just £12.3 million across 185 million transactions. In the same period, online authorised payment scams totalled £479 million across 4.1 billion online payments. As such, cheques have seen a resurgence in popularity in commercial transactions from businesses to avoid the possibility of phishing fraud.<ref name="FTCook">{{cite news |last1=Cook |first1=Lindsay |title=Why cheques aren't quite dead yet |url=https://www.ft.com/content/2fc8b8ce-8dc0-4bad-90e1-79ea596c9e0b |access-date=22 July 2023 |work=Financial Times |date=30 July 2021}}</ref>