If you don't mind, I will clarify the current system and then the system under cheque imaging.
Under the current system, a cheque may have to go through ten transportation legs, one way, to the branch where it was drawn upon. You can imagine if it goes from Whitehorse to St. John's, it has to go by truck to the airport, it has to be flown to their processing centre in Vancouver, and so on. Then if there are no funds to pay the cheque, the pay/no pay decision is made at the branch, and it has to go the reverse way. So it's a great way to accumulate air miles, but it takes some time. It can take anywhere between seven and ten days in the current environment.
That's why with cheque imaging we're going to drastically reduce that time. We think that time is going to be reduced up to roughly four days. We still have to transport the cheque for the first leg by truck and by plane to the processing centre, but then after that it will be truncated and imaged, and everything else after that will happen electronically. However, it still then has to reach a branch, it still needs 24 hours to make the pay/no pay decision, and then potentially return as well. The return will also be done electronically; however, you need all the linkages between the various systems of the various financial institutions. As you may know, we also have a three-tier system, where we have direct clearers and indirect clearers.
All of that being said, we think it could easily take up to four days. If I can then link it back to the discussion on holds on cheques, you have to realize that the clearing is only one aspect of the financial institution's decision regarding holds, because it's also very much a credit decision.
Regarding the percentage that has been quoted, of 98% of cheques being cleared overnight, I don't know where that statistic comes from. This is really just my own take on it, but there may be a confusion with a study we did many years ago where we detected that only 2% of accounts had a hold on them on a daily basis. That's basically because financial institutions give provisional credit to their customers. Therefore I'm afraid that maybe some confusion has been occurring regarding the data, because we don't have anything to confirm that percentage.