The decision to charge for cheque clearance is penny wise, pound foolish (Banks to start charging customers for Singdollar cheques by Nov 1; July 29).

Cheques have been proven to be a safe medium of exchange. Digital banking, afflicted as it is by periodic outages, scams, user error and the lack of permanent documentation, still does not engender the same level of trust.

Despite the decline in transaction volumes, the remaining 19 million annual cheque transactions – or around 52,000 a day – is no small number.

Conversely, the cost of clearing cheques – $21,000 a day across all banks, working from the reported numbers – is a drop in the ocean that is the industry’s multibillion-dollar revenues.

Passing this minuscule burden on to customers is especially brazen when it is customers’ deposits and transactions that fuel our banking institutions in the first place.

Just as no retailer would seriously entertain charging extra for cash payment based on the expense of handling physical currency, banks are better off bearing the costs and preserving customer goodwill than penalising the use of cheques.

Paul Chan Poh Hoi