Editing Financial system in Australia (section)

=== Cheques ===
[[Cheque]]s are still the most important non-cash payment instruments in Australia, in terms of the value transferred. The number of monthly cheque transactions in 2008 was 33.7 million with a value of $139.3 billion.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.apca.com.au/Public/apca01_live.nsf/WebPageDisplay/Stats_CheqMonth |title=Cheque Payment Transactions (Monthly volume and value) |access-date=2009-05-19 |archive-date=2015-07-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150712035642/http://www.apca.com.au/Public/apca01_live.nsf/WebPageDisplay/Stats_CheqMonth |url-status=dead }}</ref> Cheque use is in decline worldwide, but it is declining faster in Australia than many other countries. Between 2010 and 2014, cheque use in Australia declined by 42.8% with just over seven cheques written per person in 2014. In 2014, 166.6 million cheques were used in Australia, compared to 291.1 million in 2010.<ref>Bank for International Settlements, quoted in  Australian Payments Clearing Association, [http://www.apca.com.au/docs/default-source/decline-of-cheques---consultations/apca-milestones-report-2016.pdf Towards a digital economy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180313130901/http://apca.com.au/docs/default-source/decline-of-cheques---consultations/apca-milestones-report-2016.pdf |date=2018-03-13 }}, p.5</ref> In 2015, cheque usage fell by a further 16.3%.

Cheques and other payment instruments (such as travellers cheques and warrants) (also called CS1) are cleared and settled in accordance with the regulations and procedures set by APCS.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.apca.com.au/docs/payment-systems/becs_procedures.pdf |title=Procedures for Australian Paper Clearing System Framework (CS1), Australian Payments Clearing Association Limited: accessed 26 July 2015 |access-date=26 July 2015 |archive-date=10 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150310131525/http://apca.com.au/docs/payment-systems/becs_procedures.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Cheques use [[Magnetic ink character recognition|MICR]] encoding containing the [[Bank State Branch|BSB]] and account number to identify the bank and account to debit, as well as other information to streamline the processing of cheques. In 2014, the cost of processing cheques was the highest of all modes of payments at $5 per transaction, compared to about $0.20 for direct debits.<ref name=RBA>Reserve Bank of Australia, quoted in  Australian Payments Clearing Association, [http://www.apca.com.au/docs/default-source/decline-of-cheques---consultations/apca-milestones-report-2016.pdf Towards a digital economy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180313130901/http://apca.com.au/docs/default-source/decline-of-cheques---consultations/apca-milestones-report-2016.pdf |date=2018-03-13 }}, p.6</ref> 

A recent innovation has been digital cheque imaging, which involves images of cheques being captured by financial institutions and exchanged electronically between the relevant financial institutions rather than the previous costly practice of physically transporting paper cheques around Australia. This has also ended the need for maintaining long-term storage and retrieval systems.<ref name=RBA/> The new system speeds up the clearing process, with cheques being able to be cleared at the end of the next weekday after being presented, as opposed to up to the six weekdays under the old system.