Merchant Nicholas Vanacker made out the first British cheque payable to Mr Delboe for the grand sum of £400, dated 16 February 1659.

I note that the UK is moving in a gingerly fashion towards abolishing paper cheques. The Payments Council, an odd quango that is responsible for selling the idea of phasing out cheques by 2018 is ...

According to UK Finance, the trade association for the British banking sector, cheques made up only 0.9% of all payments here in 2018 - but they still added up to a surprising £443 billion ($550 ...