Bank of Valletta has reported an increase of almost 40% in local businesses shifting to its digital batch-payments system as cheque payments dropped by half, compared to the same period last year.

“Over these past months, we’ve seen a drastic move towards digital payments by companies of all sizes, from small family business to large corporates. Cheque payments have also decreased by nearly 50% when compared to last year, rapidly taken over by payments over internet banking and other channels,” Franco Xuereb, Executive eBanking at BOV said.

The business sector has been severely hampered by COVID-19. According to Tonia Naudi, Head, Business Payments at Bank of Valletta, business operators have moved from the traditional and costlier cash or cheque-based payments into cheaper digital payments.  

“Habitual use of traditional payment methods may give the perception of convenience, and until companies switch, the hidden costs of cash and cheques borne by such companies are rarely calculated,” Naudi said.

“Let’s say a company with 50 employees shifts its monthly salary payments from cheques to digital payments. Cheque payments would cost the company €600, whereas through the BOV Batch-Payments, it would incur just €72 – that’s a cost saving of €528. And this without taking into account slow payment turnaround, security risks, errors from manual intervention, storage space requirements and manual recording, filing and reconciliation of accounts.”

Through Batch-Payments, supplier payments and salaries are batched into one file by the company issuing payments and uploaded as a single file on the BOV Internet Banking. BOV to BOV payments are instant, whereas payments to beneficiaries whose account is held by other banks are carried out within 24 hours.