checkless society

Yet decades after the "checkless society" was envisioned, most of the 18 billion bills that Americans pay every year follow a similar route.

Even with the acceptance of such new wrinkles in checking accounts, the banker's dream of a checkless society still remains far off.

"I was hearing about the coming of the checkless society more than 20 years ago," she said, noting that the Boston Fed now has a pilot program for recording the information on checks by computer and electronically forwarding the information.

Although "wringing the paper out of the system" boosts efficiency and checks are receding dramatically, don't expect a checkless society anytime soon, said Doug Johnson of the American Bankers Association, an industry group in Washington, D.C.