The humble cheque goes digital

The humble cheque is not dead yet – in fact, they’re going digital.

“Surprisingly, we still receive over 30,000 cheques a day from customers,” said Jeremy Marron, Westpac’s director of online and mobile development.  

“So we see a need for our customers to be able to deposit them through their mobile app.”

Westpac has unveiled a new “cheque deposit” function within the Westpac Live mobile app, enabling customers to make a deposit by using their phone camera to scan the cheque, with the same level of security as going to a branch or using a smart ATM.  

Cheque usage across the economy has steadily declined over the years, many children today potentially never having seen one.

In 1980 prior to the rise of the internet, cheques accounted for 85 per cent of the number of non-cash payments and almost all of their value, according to the Reserve Bank. But with the rise of credit cards and new digital payment solutions, cheques now make up about 1 per cent of the number of non-cash payments and around 7 per cent of value.

Mr Marron said despite the decline, the new functionality was among several new digital features to make banking more convenient, following close on the heels of last week’s introduction of “Siri for Westpac”.