Reporter Andrew Johnson’s article in today’s American Banker (”A New Goal in Payments: Checks Without Paper <http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/175_81/new-goal-in-payments-1018397-1.html> “) makes an interesting point regarding payment processing.  In the article, he writes, “The Fed paper suggested that banks could benefit from all-digital checks because they could devote fewer resources to their check systems and could clear check payments faster.” Increasing the velocity of financial transactions by compressing the time to process payments is a worthy industry goal.  Clearing check payments as soon as possible could certainly be a boon for banks, but at what cost? Duplicates and fraudulent payments will inevitably find their way into the mix. To insulate themselves from risk, banks need to accelerate exception item processing at the same rate at which they are processing payments.  Whether the check is paper, or an image, or 100% digital, any effort at acceleration only strengthens the case for accelerating Day 2 exception processing to Day 1.