The Cheque and Credit Clearing Company Limited (C&CCC) is a UK membership-based industry body whose 11 members are the UK clearing banks. The company has managed the cheque clearing system in England and Wales since 1985, in all of Great Britain since 1996 when it took over responsibility for managing the Scottish cheque clearing as well, and in the whole of the United Kingdom since the introduction of the Image Clearing System in 2019. As well as clearing cheques, the system processes the following forms of payment: banker's drafts, building society cheques, postal orders, warrants, government payable orders and traveller's cheques. The company also manages the systems for the clearing of paper bank giro credits (the credit clearing). The clearing system in Northern Ireland was formerly operated by the Belfast Bankers' Clearing Company for the four clearing banks there. History In 2009 3.5 million cheques and 360,000 paper credits passed through the British interbank clearing system each working day. Cheque volumes reached a peak in 1990 when 4 billion cheques were written, but usage has fallen since then. This is mainly due to alternative methods of payment such as direct debits, BACS payments and more recently, the Faster Payments Service, being used more widely by individuals and businesses. The annual rate of decline of the volume of cheques being used is now in double figures. Members Members of the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company are individually responsible for processing cheques drawn by, or credited to, the accounts of their customers. In addition, several hundred other institutions provide cheque facilities for their customers and obtain indirect access to the cheque clearing mechanisms by means of commercially negotiated agency arrangements with one of the full members. Members of the Image Clearing System, as of 2019, are: Access Bank Allied Irish Bank Bank of Ireland Barclays Bank Clydesdale Bank The Co-operative Bank Habib Bank Zurich HSBC UK Lloyds Bank Nationwide Building Society National Westminster Bank Northern Bank (trading as Danske Bank) The Royal Bank of Scotland Santander UK TSB Bank Turkish Bank Virgin Money The members of the paper clearing, shut down in August 2019, were: Bank of England Bank of Scotland Barclays Clear Bank Clydesdale Bank The Co-operative Bank HSBC Bank Lloyds Bank National Westminster Bank Nationwide Building Society The Royal Bank of Scotland Santander UK 2-4-6 changes to cheque clearing From the end of November 2007, changes known as 2-4-6 came