Tag: payment

Since the introduction of magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) technology in the mid-1950s, businesses and consumers alike increasingly have chosen to pay bills by check. In 1999, 70 billion checks were written in the United States, accounting for 73 percent of all non-cash transactions. Of the total, 56 percent, or 39.2 billion, were written by consumers. Businesses wrote 28.7 billion, or 41 percent and government, 2.1 billion, or three percent. The United States Postal service earned 25 percent of its year’s revenues from the delivery of checks. (Hence, the phrase: “The check is in the mail.”) Banks generated $60 billion in revenues from checking accounts, according to the Check Payment Systems Association.