In part - although only in part - the outcome depends on us, on the people in this room, and the enterprises and institutions we represent. It depends on how effectively and imaginatively we all do our individual jobs and on whether we find constructive ways to work together.
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.