The majority of B2B payments in the US are still made by paper cheque, says AP Now's 2016 Payment Survey. The survey found that more than half of companies in the US pay three-quarters of their B2B payments by cheque.

It also found that only 45 per cent of those who rely on cheques are aiming to cut their volume of cheque usage.

This suggests that little is being done in the corporate world to reduce cheque usage. Despite this, 83 per cent of companies use ACH and 79 per cent use payment cards for company purchasing.

As the graph below shows, ACH usage is strongest among organisations with more than 1500 employees. One-third of companies with more than 1500 employees use ACH payments for more than half of their payments. Only six per cent of companies with more than 5000 employees use ACH for less than 10 per cent of payments.

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CTMfile Take: If you believe the headlines, you may think that Bitcoin, blockchain, mobile payments and near-field communication are set to revolutionise the payments industry, so that soon we'll all be paying our suppliers with a blink of an eyelid. But here we have a snapshot of the reality of corporate America. And it suggests the cheque isn't on the brink of death. It's actually thriving.