David welcomes Select Committee backing for cheque campaign

David Ward MP has welcomed today's report by Parliament's influential Treasury Select Committee, which gives strong backing to his calls for greater safeguards on the future of cheques.

David has led a vigorous campaign to save cheques, since last year's announcement by the Payment's Council that they planned to close cheque clearing by 2018.

Massive campaigning helped force a U-turn earlier this year and David has introduced a Bill in Parliament to limit the banks' power to abolish cheques in the future.

The Committee today backed this approach, and joined David in calling for an independent body to take all future decisions on cheques.

Commenting, David Ward said:

"It is great news that the Committee have decided to back my call for an independent body to make sure that all future decisions on cheques are taken in the interests of consumers, not the banks. The Payments Council listened to reason and abandoned its target to abolish cheques by 2018, but we must not allow this to happen again.

"If the Payment's Council's plans had been allowed to go ahead, millions of vulnerable people, charities and small businesses would have been left without this essential service. This decision is too important to be left in the hands of an organisation which has a massive vested interest in getting rid of cheques.

"We have already seen the service substantially eroded with the loss of the cheque guarantee card. We need to put a stop to this, and I am calling on other MPs to back my Bill which will put these decisions in the hands of an independent regulator."

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