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I found the China graph that I thought I posted last year, but couldn't track down in the blog.
Now, if you imagine that line continuing to increase, but at an even sharper rate, then you can perhaps see why China felt obliged to slam on the brakes.
+++++++
I paid a couple of dollar cheques into Citibank at lunchtime. I mentioned in passing that two of the last three Paytech cheques that I paid in had been "lost" in the clearing system, resulting in the money being back-debited out of my account. Both the counterhands agreed that this was almost unheard of. A bloke from the back came out and we chatted about it. He admitted that there had been an error in December, which would explain one of the mislays. He said that the company concerned was one of those "in the middle" processors (the kind that are referred to occasionally in the 2+2 forums) and that they had, erroneously, sent a whole batch of cheques to New York, having assumed (incorrectly) that because they were dollar cheques, they had to go to the US.
It's here that it becomes entertaining. "So", I said, "if it happens again, can't you just get the cheques back?"
"No", bank guy replied, "the Americans destroy the cheques".
Apparently once a paper cheque gets into the US clearing system, it is scanned and everything takes place electronically. The original cheque is destroyed. That would be fine, but in the UK, the system is different, and for a payment to be fully cleared through our system, you need the original paper cheque. If you can imagine the circular path that a cheque takes when you "pay" someone. You hand it to the recipient. He pays it into his account. His bank sends it to your bank. Your bank deducts the funds from your account and gives it to the other bank. It then (or, rather it used to in the 1960s), sends the cheque back to you, along with all the other cheques you have written, every six months or so.
So, unless the drawer of the cheque gets the original back, it won't deduct the funds and transfer them. In the US this is done electronically, but in the UK they insist on the original. But, well, the Americans had it in their system long enough to think that the paper cheque wasn't needed any more.
Which was why I had to go twice to Party Poker to get the funds recredited to my account.
Fun, or what?
_______________
Now, if you imagine that line continuing to increase, but at an even sharper rate, then you can perhaps see why China felt obliged to slam on the brakes.
+++++++
I paid a couple of dollar cheques into Citibank at lunchtime. I mentioned in passing that two of the last three Paytech cheques that I paid in had been "lost" in the clearing system, resulting in the money being back-debited out of my account. Both the counterhands agreed that this was almost unheard of. A bloke from the back came out and we chatted about it. He admitted that there had been an error in December, which would explain one of the mislays. He said that the company concerned was one of those "in the middle" processors (the kind that are referred to occasionally in the 2+2 forums) and that they had, erroneously, sent a whole batch of cheques to New York, having assumed (incorrectly) that because they were dollar cheques, they had to go to the US.
It's here that it becomes entertaining. "So", I said, "if it happens again, can't you just get the cheques back?"
"No", bank guy replied, "the Americans destroy the cheques".
Apparently once a paper cheque gets into the US clearing system, it is scanned and everything takes place electronically. The original cheque is destroyed. That would be fine, but in the UK, the system is different, and for a payment to be fully cleared through our system, you need the original paper cheque. If you can imagine the circular path that a cheque takes when you "pay" someone. You hand it to the recipient. He pays it into his account. His bank sends it to your bank. Your bank deducts the funds from your account and gives it to the other bank. It then (or, rather it used to in the 1960s), sends the cheque back to you, along with all the other cheques you have written, every six months or so.
So, unless the drawer of the cheque gets the original back, it won't deduct the funds and transfer them. In the US this is done electronically, but in the UK they insist on the original. But, well, the Americans had it in their system long enough to think that the paper cheque wasn't needed any more.
Which was why I had to go twice to Party Poker to get the funds recredited to my account.
Fun, or what?
_______________
