Check usage continues to decline for business-to-business (B2B) transactions, falling to an all-time low of 42 percent, according to the 2019 AFP Electronic Payments Survey, underwritten by J.P. Morgan. B2B check payments have now fallen by nearly 50 percent since when they were at 81 percent. Check usage has also shown a steady decline since 2013 and when approximately half of the average organizations' payments were made using checks.
But even though checks are slower to process than electronic payment methods and are more susceptible to fraud, they continue to dominate B2B transactions, signaling the challenge in changing internal processes. Other barriers treasury departments face in moving away from checks are a lack of IT resources, and difficulty convincing business partners to shift towards sending/receiving e-payments.