Financial experts claim major High Street banks are profiteering by hanging onto cash and investing it on money markets as well as cheating their customers out of several days interest. They say it should take no longer than two working days for banks to clear a cheque. This is the biggest money-making machine ever. Customers should be given access to their money by the banks at the earliest possible time.
Banks earn millions on it in money-market interest.
About nine million cheques are written every day. We have the carrot of a free banking system but they take a few hundred quid from everybody involved in banking from scams like this. He believes the process could be easily speeded up with the introduction of new technology to make the cheque clearance system electronic. Neil Walkling, principal money researcher for the Consumers' Association, criticised the banks' intransigence over the issue and accused them of being loathe to invest in speeding up a payment method viewed as increasingly antiquated. If cleared electronically there is no reason why it should take more than a day or two.