128. Deputy Billy Timmins asked the Minister for Finance if he has had any discussions with the financial institutions with respect to their policy on uncashed bank drafts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32881/15]

I have not had discussions with the financial institutions with respect to their policy on uncashed bank drafts, nor do I have a statutory function in this matter.  I have contacted the Central Bank and they do not have readily available information on the amount of money in uncashed bank drafts.

I am informed that the number of bank drafts in issuance is small, and the evidence suggests that it is in steady decline. According to the Central Bank, bank drafts represented 3.4% of all cheques issued in 2012, and just 1.7% in 2014. Over this time, the total number of cheques issued annually declined by around 20%, with the survey suggesting that approximately 1 million bank drafts were in issuance in 2014. Of these bank drafts, approximately 59% of the beneficiaries were consumers, 28% were SMEs, while the beneficiaries of the remainder (13%) were public sector bodies or large companies.

This drop in usage would suggest that transactions which would have historically been done by bank draft are increasingly being executed electronically through Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) which is a more efficient transfer mechanism.