The old style chequebook system might soon be a thing of the past with the Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philiip Lowe saying ditching the age-old payment method is in the “national interest”.

Dr Lowe says although the system is outdated, no one is prepared to actually end it.

Recent statistics show the number of personal cheques drawn in Australia fell by 27 per cent last year while commercial cheques were down by 30 per cent.

The number of personal cheques written in Australia is just 915,000 a month while commercial cheques number than fewer than 1.9 million.

Adjunct professor at Swinbourne University Steve Worthington told 6PR’s Oliver Peterson that scrapping the system makes sense although he doesn’t think the change will come anytime soon.

“It will eventually become so ill-used that we do abandon it” Professor Worthington told the Perth Live program

“I would say within the next 10 years… I don’t think it’s immediate”.

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