Getting off cheques
A Canadian B2B payment playbook for prioritizing suppliers, collecting banking details safely and managing the transition.
Make the transition measurable: an owner, four quarters, and a scorecard.
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Cheques made up 2 per cent of Canadian payment volume in 2024 — and 22 per cent of the value. They have nearly vanished from consumer life and survive almost exclusively in one place: high-value business payments. If your company still runs a cheque run, you are carrying the payment method that concentrates the most money, the most cost and the most fraud exposure in your entire mix.
This paper’s argument: cheque elimination is not a payments decision. It is a supplier-enablement project with a payments decision inside it. The centerpiece is a four-part playbook — segment your suppliers, map each segment to the right Canadian rail, collect banking details with fraud-safe controls, and measure the wind-down quarterly. None of it requires the Real-Time Rail, new headcount, or drama. It requires an owner and four quarters.
In this whitepaper
- The cheque paradox: why cheques persist exactly where the money is
- What a cheque actually costs — roughly $15 to $25 all-in — and the documented fraud case against it
- Why “vendors want cheques” is softer than it looks
- The Cheque Wind-Down Playbook: segment, select, verify, track
- Planning for the Real-Time Rail without depending on it, and a quarterly scorecard that makes the wind-down visible
- 22%of Canadian payment value still moves by cheque — on just 2% of payment volume
- $15–$25all-in cost of a business cheque; migrating to electronic payments could save roughly 41% of B2B processing costs
- 63%of organizations with fraud activity cited cheques as the most-targeted payment method (2025 survey)
