E-Commerce Will Not Eliminate Check Cashers
A Viewpoint Article First Published in American Banker
By Richard B. Kelsky

Are the days of the paper dollar at an end? It may be trendy to say so, but whether people receive their money in checks or electronically, they continue to convert it voraciously into cash.

Retail check-cashing stores — which cash 180 million checks worth $55 billion annually — serve as one of the largest windows into the cash economy. Despite industry changes and reductions in certain types of checks, both the number of stores and large-scale acquisitions have continued to grow.

Serving the unbanked and those who have bank accounts but cannot wait for checks to clear, check-cashing stores have morphed into e-commerce portals. They routinely provide products and services such as bill payments, wire transfers, stored-value cards, transit cards, phone cards, and even cell phone minutes and payment of parking tickets.

The lesson: The emergence of new distribution channels almost never leads to the obliteration of old ones. Distribution becomes more fragmented, but we get a parallel evolution, not extinguishment.
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