CHEQUE CLEARANCE TIMES

That this House notes with concern that, in this electronic age, banks and building societies drag their heels when clearing cheques according to a Consumers Association study; notes that cheque clearance time varies greatly between financial institutions; further notes the extreme inconvenience caused to account holders by the antiquated system which denies them access to their own money for unnecessarily long periods; deplores the way the system provides financial institutions with another way to profit excessivley from their account holders; urges the banks and building societies to update their practices to give bank account holders access to their own money more quickly; and calls on the Government to apply pressure to the industry to bring it into the twenty-first century.