Since the advent of Check 21 regulations in the US, requiring Banks to use cheque images to settle, the introduction of remote deposit capture has taken off.  This capability allows for merchants to scan the cheque, send it off for credit, and the paper cheque is destroyed.

Overall, there has been strong growth. According to remotedepositcapture.com, the number of Remote Deposit Capture (RDC) locations was expected to top 181,000 at the end of 2006. That’s up from 41,000 at the end of 2005 and only 6,500 in 2004.

Not surprisingly, there also has been substantial growth in the total number of checks processed. In 2004, almost 60 million checks were processed via RDC. That number grew to 615 million by the end of 2005 and was expected to be more than 2.4 billion by the end of 2006.

Source: Small Business News Network – Barlow Research Associates, Inc.

For a fuller explanation of all this, the site mentioned, remotedepositcapture.com, has lots of background, and a useful overview.

This remains a uniquely American phenomenon where a facility to capture and settle paper cheques electronically would be set up rather move to a completely electronic payment method.  Nonetheless, there are no useful, simple electronic payment methods for businesses especially yet, so this might end up being the route to go.