TowerGroup expects check volumes to decline to 17.9 billion transactions by the end of 2009 as consumers, businesses, and government entities increasingly make and accept electronic payments. However, TowerGroup believes that checks will remain an important and increasingly high-value part of the US payments landscape until all potential payees are willing and able to receive electronic payments - and until checks become too expensive for banks to process on a regular basis, as shrinking volumes drive up per-unit processing costs. TowerGroup's new research is based on its own the findings as well as those from the 2007 Federal Reserve Payments Study.