And about time too: remote cheque capture reaches the UK. Consumers will be able to deposit cheques instantly using their mobile phone rather than visiting a branch. For the banks, there is the benefit of avoiding the expense of delivering cheques physically to a clearing facility, writes Douglas Blakey

It will come as no surprise to UK bank watchers that Barclays will be first to offer remote cheque capture. First to offer ATMs (back in 1967) and first with a credit card offering (Barclaycard) – Pingit is a more recent example of Barclays’ record for innovation – Barclays has announced plans to give 1m of its Premier Account customers the ability to deposit cheques remotely by taking photographs via their mobiles.

The UK government introduced enabling legislation in June to speed up cheque deposits and permit scanning technology and since then Barclays has been piloting the technology with a few thousand customers.

The pilot has proved popular with 90% of Barclays guinea pigs giving the service the thumbs up.

Benefits include improved convenience and faster availability of funds for consumers, businesses and charities, as well as greater operational efficiency, detection of cheque fraud and growth for financial institutions. Costs savings can benefit all those using and processing cheques remotely.

A pilot is also in the pipeline for corporate customers, which between them still deposit 46m million cheques each year, worth in excess of £100bn billion.

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Cheques remain are a crucial part of the British payments landscape – nearly £840bn of cheques were processed in 2012 – accounting for 10% of all payments made by individuals.

They are especially important to small businesses – sole traders and other micro businesses who continue to make over a fifth of their outgoing payments in cheques.

Cheques also continue to be a vital channel for charitable donations. Nearly a third of smaller charities receive over 75% of their income by cheque.

Cheque imaging has proved popular in the US since its launch there around 10 years ago. According to Celent, some 20m consumers used mobile remote deposit capture last year compared with 10.9m million in 2012. The analyst predicts the mobile user base will increase to 33m this year, 47m in 2015, and 61m by 2016.

Speaking at a roundtable hosted by NCR on the implications of new cheque scanning legislation and technologies, Giovanni Bandi, director business development UK told RBI: "The timing of this legislation is particularly pertinent as cheque scanning technology could be easily integrated into any U.K. mobile banking application alongside other features, such as the recently launched Paym functionality. "Depositing a cheque using a mobile phone is simple – after signing in to their financial institution’s mobile banking app, consumers use their smartphone to take a photo of the front and back of a cheque and then submit the information securely and quickly."