The Federal Reserve has tracked changes in consumers’ use of payment instruments in a number of studies over the past decade. These studies cast an interesting light on the effects that weakened economic conditions have had on the mix of payments.
The number of checks processed in the United States has been declining since the late 1990s, as consumers, businesses, and governments have shifted away from checks and toward electronic payment methods. The annual number of checks dropped from more than 40 billion in 2000 to 30 billion in 2006, and we expect the data for 2009 to show continued declines.