The Tribune

By Neil Hartnell

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Bahamian cheque suppliers yesterday warned they will be forced out of business if the Central Bank and its licensees succeed in “significantly reducing” or eliminating use of this payment mechanism, with one asserting: “They’re trying to kill us one nick at a time.”

Leslie Fraser, president of Bahamas Cheque Services, told Tribune Business that her company will “close down if it gets much worse than it is now” as it is presently doing “maybe 25 percent of the business we did five years ago” due to the Central Bank’s cheque elimination drive.

She added that the firm, which specialises in printing cheques and deposit books, has cut its workforce by “three-quarters” - from 12 staff to four workers and a manager amid the Bahamian commercial banking industry’s drive to push consumers towards digital transactions and away from paper-based and cash payments.

Pierre Dupuch, the former MP and Cabinet minister, who heads Executive Printers, another cheque supplier to the banks, told this newspaper that business volumes have declined by “about 75 percent” since the switch towards digital and electronic banking - and away from cheques as a payment mechanism - began. He warned that the company, too, will have to close unless it can find new, replacement revenue and business streams.

Both Mr Dupuch and Ms Fraser argued that the rush to “significantly reduce”, or eliminate, cheque usage by Bahamian businesses and choice “makes no sense” and is seemingly anti-consumer choice if it prevents persons from using their preferred mechanism.

Cheque payments accounted for some $3.8bn worth of Bahamas-based payment transactions in 2024, numbering 823.1m in the volume processed, although this represented a decline in volume and value by 14.5 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively. However, they each argued that fears over the vulnerability of cheques to fraud and use in other financial crimes was overblown to justify their elimination.

Both Mr Dupuch and Ms Fraser said the cheques their respective firms print for the banks, as well as corporate clients, contain no less than 12 different security features - far in excess of what they said are the four features incorporated into US and Canadian cheques. And Mr Dupuch, in particular, argued that there is far more fraud associated with credit and debit card use than cheques.

Ms Fraser, arguing that Bahamians “should have the option to pay [by cheque] if they want”, added that the legal reforms proposed by the Central Bank to numerous laws - which would remove cheques as the mandatory or sole form of payment, and provide more flexibility by permitting digital transactions - would require the Government’s approval and involvement.

Asked what would happen to Bahamas Cheque Services if the Central Bank and its licensees succeed with their cheque objectives, Ms Fraser told Tribune Business: “Basically, I’ll tell you honestly, we’d close down if it gets much worse than it is now. As you can imagine, I don’t want to close down because we have staff who have families and loans to pay. We’ve reduced staff by three-quarters; we used to have 12 and are down to four and a manager.

“They’ve [the banks] stopped ordering even deposit books because of new innovation in that department. Sales have decreased. For the business we did five years ago, we’re doing maybe 25 percent now of what that was. It’s their cheque [elimination] drive. I think, honestly, they’re down to the last few industries. An industry that likes to use cheques is real estate companies and attorneys. They like to use cheques.”

Ms Fraser said corporate clients have enabled Bahamas Cheque Services to survive thus far, and added: “We still have a good business and are able to stay afloat. When you buy a piece of property for $500,000, you can write a cheque for that. They [realtors and attorneys] like to stick it all together until everything is complete and they push through a sale. We still get a lot of business companies.”

Those days of writing a $500,000 cheque for a real estate transaction may soon be over, though, if proposals by the Central Bank and commercial banks proceed and take effect before year-end 2026. They are proposing a $1,000 maximum limit on the value of a cheque that can be cashed over-the-counter at a financial institution, and also suggesting the maximum value of a transaction that can be paid for by a cheque be limited to $10,000.

Ms Fraser hinted she found it ironic that Gowon Bowe, Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) chief executive, who co-chairs the steering committee overseeing the cheque initiative, also heads a financial institution that “still does a lot of cheque orders” with Bahamas Cheque Services.

“As I said to him in an e-mail I have yet to send, they’re trying to kill us one nick at a time,” she told Tribune Business. “Just nick us to death. I need to calm things down. Sometimes you do things in the heat of the moment that you tend to regret later.”

Affirming that a substantial reduction in cheque use “would probably definitely put us out of business”, Ms Fraser added that clients still prefer to have a “paper trail” of cheque payments and create “duplicates” so they have a physical copy for their files.

She also asserted that the touted greater efficiency of digital payments, and increased security, when compared to cheques, was exaggerated. “We have 12 different security features,” Ms Fraser explained. “We have tags that show up under blue, and we have orange ink. When you rub it, it changes and comes back. They are very secure.

“There’s very little need [for their elimination]. What do we do when a foreigner comes here with a US dollar cheque? Do you know how hard it is to transfer money from the US to here? What are we going to do? I have clients who write me US dollar cheques all the time.

“Can they eliminate US dollar cheques in the system out there? There are many second homeowners and others who can only have US dollar bank accounts. It’s not as cut and dried as it appears. It looks to me that the only reason the banks want to do this is they want to eliminate the cost of processing. What do we do now? That’s what I’d like to know.”

Mr Dupuch, voicing similar sentiments, asserted that the elimination of cheques as a form of payment “makes no sense to me”. Explaining that Executive Printers is contracted by Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) to supply cheques used by its clients, he argued that it is “next to impossible” to exploit them for fraud and other financial crimes because of the 12 in-built security features and other safeguards surrounding their printing.

Pointing out that the cheques supplied by Executive Printers have triple the four security features required by US and Canadian cheques, Mr Dupuch said of the Central Bank initiative: “I have had a lot of calls today on this matter. I’m obviously prejudiced because we’re in that business. It would basically put every cheque printer out of business.

“We’re trying to look at other things that the company can do to sort of offset that, and if we cannot find sufficient other things for the company to do, we close it up and fire everyone working for it. People do want cheques but the business has gone down. I think the Central Bank is being stupid. This is not the last time they’ve done this. They’ve made this threat for three years.”

Mr Dupuch said Executive Printers has seen its business volumes drop “about 75 percent” since the Central Bank began its cheque use reduction and elimination drive. “There’s no need to eliminate cheques,” he argued. “Some people live by them, and I recognise people are using digital, these cards more and more, but the thing is it should not be eliminated. Every Tom, Dick and Harry who can get a cheque cannot get these cards.

“There’s more fraud in credit cards. They have not got to the point of making them safe. It’s up to them. I’ve fought it long enough. I’m tired. I’m 87 years-old. I think I’m not going to fight these people very much more.”