Among the less-publicised side-effects of the terrorist attacks on America in September 2001 were growing piles of cheques in banks across the land. Because air traffic was at a standstill, banks were unable to process them. Americans are still heavy users of paper cheques (see chart on next page), and the banks at which they are deposited must send them to those on which they are drawn, perhaps thousands of miles away. Many Americans, indeed, still receive wads of their cancelled cheques with their monthly statements.
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