Good end to a bad practice

One of many symptoms of the economic crisis is the spectacular reduction in the number of postdated checks that are being issued. Recent statistics indicate that the drop reached 59.26 percent in the past year, which from January to May 2010 came to 641.4 million euros, compared to 1.319 billion euros in the same period last year. Of course, this is a natural reaction to uncertainty, as people are not prepared to take the risk of being unable to honor their checks at some point in the future, or of not getting paid. Even though the drop in the habit is a result of the crisis, it is also an opportunity to put an end to the until recently standard practice of writing postdated checks, a phenomenon that appears in no other European country in such profusion. This informal system of keeping cash flowing may have had a purpose once but now it is time to stop it. Prohibiting the issuance of postdated checks along with taking measures that will ensure that all companies make payments via bank transfers are two steps that will help build a better business mentality.