Banks and treasury teams
Track rejects, returns and fraud losses item by item, and plan now for the Federal Reserve outcome.
Free market report · 2027 outlook
The State of the U.S. Check Market, 2027
Higher stakes from print to clearing
Check payments fell to 9.2 billion in 2024, but they still moved $24.45 trillion, 17 percent of all noncash payment value in the country. The checks that remain carry more money and remain the payment type fraud targets most.
This report sets out what the federal data shows, where the market is heading through 2027, and what it means for everyone who prints, secures and clears a check. Every figure links to its public source.
PDF, 13 pages, 1.4 MB. Published October 2026.
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Key findings
The market in six numbers
$24.45T
moved by check in 2024, 17 percent of all noncash payment value
Source: Federal Reserve Payments Study
5.9%
annual decline in check count from 2021 to 2024, easing from 7.4 percent (2015 to 2018) and 6.5 percent (2018 to 2021)
Source: Federal Reserve Payments Study
73%
of businesses in a Federal Reserve Financial Services study use checks, up from 68 percent a year earlier
Source: Federal Reserve Financial Services 2024 Business Payments Study, as reported by Nacha
63%
of organizations in the 2025 AFP survey faced attempted or actual check fraud in 2024
Federal Reserve Payments Study figures are estimates for calendar year 2024, released July 1, 2026.
What is inside
Eight sections, from the federal data to what to do next
- 1
Defining the market
Interbank and on-us checks, and why the most quoted check number is not the size of the market.
- 2
Market size and trajectory
From 17.0 billion check payments in 2015 to 9.2 billion in 2024, and why the money is holding.
- 3
Why checks persist
Why business use of checks rose in a single year, led by small and very small firms.
- 4
Print: fraud raises the stakes
What happened to checks stolen from the mail, and why fraud is an attack on the printed document.
- 5
Production: volume concentrates
Why the checks that remain are printed by producers built for volume.
- 6
Clearing: the Federal Reserve review
The four strategies the Federal Reserve Board put out for comment, and what each means for clearing.
- 7
Outlook for 2027
Four forward-looking views from Rosetta Technologies, and what would change them.
- 8
Recommendations
For banks and treasury teams, check producers and service providers, and print partners and resellers.
Who it is for
Recommendations for three readers
Check producers and service providers
Size equipment for consolidated volume, measure MICR quality on a schedule, and treat security features as part of the product.
Print partners and resellers
Lead with value and security, not volume, and focus on the accounts where checks concentrate.