ING bank has become the last Dutch bank to stop accepting cheques. Contrary to other countries, cheques are no longer common tender in the Netherlands and Rabobank and ABN Amro already decided to no longer accept them a year ago.

ING, the last bank to process them, stopped the practice from January 1 this year, although this has only now become apparent.

‘We have been seeing a decline of 10% to 20% in the last year and the coronavirus crisis speeded that up even more. Cheques are also more vulnerable to fraud than a digital transaction so we decided to abolish them altogether,’ spokeswoman Alexandra Schippers told NU.nl.

The decision may have come as an unwelcome surprise for American citizens living in this country, the news site said, because the support they are receiving from the American government to compensate for losses caused by the crisis comes in the shape of a cheque.

However, the bank said there are a number of alternatives. ‘They can ask to have the money paid into an existing account, or try a foreign bank, ‘ Schippers said.