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Market Intelligence
Fraud and Costs Fuel the Check’s Ongoing Demise
The check, once America’s go-to way to pay and get paid, suffered its latest blow in September when the Social Security Administration, Internal Revenue Service and other federal agencies officially stopped sending pieces of paper as a form of payment. “Paper-based payments, such as checks and money orders, impose unnecessary costs, delays, and risks of fraud, lost payments, theft, and inefficiencies,” the White House said in a March 2025 release announcing President Donald Trump’s executive order. It’s another step in the long, inglorious decline of the check. In 1995, the Federal Reserve System processed more than 15 billion checks; by…
Kicking the Can Down the Road
Commercial real estate valuations took a hit during the pandemic and have yet to fully recover. With interest rates still high relative to terms struck during the pandemic, and borrowers feeling pinched, banks — which hold about 60% of CRE debt — and other lenders have continued to extend loans that are nearing maturity. For the record, S&P Global Market Intelligence estimated in September that $936 billion in CRE debt would mature in 2026, up 18.6% from 2025 levels. By the end of the decade, the figure is projected to be more than $1 trillion. But take those numbers with…
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WRITTEN BY
John Engen
Contributing Writer
John Engen is a contributing writer for Bank Director. He has more than 30 years of experience as a business journalist, writing for a variety of newspapers and magazines, and was a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press. He graduated with a degree in economics and international relations from the University of Minnesota and did his post-graduate work in Asian studies at the University of Hawai’i.