Savings of at least £300,000 are forecast by Birmingham City Council – by simply stopping the payment of its bills to suppliers by cheque in favour of the widely-used BACS system.
At present, the council issues in the region of 350,000 cheques a year, but they cost roughly four times as much as BACS – the electronic method most well known as the way in which salaries are paid directly to people’s bank accounts.
