Neither the consumer nor the merchant knew how much of the value of a check would ultimately be delivered to the intended  1/3  beneficiary, so it was difficult to determine the value of a check needed to pay a bill. As the level of interstate commerce grew, the costs associated with this inefficient practice became quite burdensome.
Also, collecting a check could take a long time. Because a check could be forwarded to numerous correspondent banks before ultimately being presented for payment, some public officials charged that banks deliberately engaged in the “circuitous routing” of checks to exploit the inefficiencies of the payments system.