The obituary for the check has been prematurely written. Almost half (46%) of consumers have written a check in the last 30 days. Not quite dead, indeed. Has check volume been declining for a number of years? Absolutely. In 2015, 18.1 billion checks were written. By 2021, the Federal Reserve reported 11.2 billion checks were written. 11.2 billion is still a big number. Will check volumes continue to decline? More than likely. Will checks become obsolete? Very, very unlikely.
If checks will continue to be a critical financial instrument, the question you should be asking is, "What are we going to do about the checks we'll need to process in the upcoming years? How can we process them efficiently and cost effectively to help minimize returns, delays, and fraud?"
