I happen to be one of those who thinks change in retail payments could accelerate quite rapidly in the next few years and that paper check volume could begin to decline steeply in the relatively near term. I say could rather than will because I realize that prediction has been made many times before and has always proved wrong.
When it comes to correcting intra-euro area macroeconomic imbalances, the bulk of structural adjustments has to be undertaken by the deficit countries themselves as it was there that domestic developments became unsustainable in the years prior to the crisis.