Large-value cheques (those over $50 thousand)
represent only about one-quarter of one percent of the clearing volume in ACSS but about 75 percent of the clearing value. The decline in the volume of cheque payments in recent years is due
largely to the strong growth in the use of other non-cash payment instruments over the period.
The growth in the value of cheque payments has declined primarily because of slower growth in
large-value payments due partly to the development of bilateral netting in International Interbank
Payment System and to the shift in late 1995 of Government of Canada treasury bills into the
Canadian Depository for Securities’ Debt Clearing Service, where payments are also netted.