The first development is concerned with the ongoing transformation of the check payment into an

electronic funds transfer. The check has been characterized as the paper-based payment system par
excellence. Recently, this view has been eroded in several ways. Principal developments outlined in this
paper consist of the "electronic check" in the United States; the remotely created check in the United
States and Canada; electronic presentment in the United States, UK, recent law reform in Sri Lanka and a
proposal in Canada; and "electronic negotiation" under "Check 21 Act" in the United States. A procedure
in which the physical movement of checks is curtailed or eliminated, being replaced, in whole or in part,
by electronic transmission of information is called "check truncation." To a large extent, check
truncation reflects a partial conversion of the check collection process to an electronic funds transfer.
The second development is the evolving legal framework applicable to payment cards. A fundamental
distinction has been known to exist between access and stored-value payment cards. The recent
emergence in the United States of payroll, remittance and gift cards has required their classification in
that framework. A recent amendment in the United States placed the payroll card under Regulation E
governing access device. Yet earlier parameters established by the Federal Reserve Board, to which no
reference was made in connection with the recent amendment, but which are followed in the literature
and banking parlance, would have suggested the payroll card is a stored-value card. With the view of
eliminating future confusion, Part III endeavors to reconstruct these earlier parameters, to clarify the
distinction between access and stored-value cards, and thus to facilitate an appropriate framework for
future developments. Specifically,it is designed to justify the treatment of the payroll card as an access
device as conceptually sound. The third development is the acceleration in the modernization of the
law of securities transfers. Recent Canadian legislation modeled on Article 8 of the American Uniform
Commercial Code, passed in May 2006, provides for a comprehensive framework dealing with all modes
of securities holdings and transfers. Particularly, it covers the indirect-tier holding, namely, the transfer
and pledge of "security entitlements" credited and debited to "securities accounts" maintained with
"securities intermediaries" such as brokerage firms which in turn maintain securities accounts with a
Central Depositary of Securities (CDS). The fourth development is the European march towards a
Pan-European common payment law. With the view of creating a Single Payment Market where
improved economies of scale and competition would help to reduce cost of the payment system, the
Com mission of the European Communities proposed in December 2005 to establish a common
framework for the Community payments market creating the conditions for integration and
rationalisation of national payment systems. Focusing on electronic payments, the Commission made a
proposal for a Directive on payment services in the internal market, designed to provide for a
harmonised legal framework. Intended to leave maximum room for self-regulation of industry, the
Proposed Directive purports to harmonise only what is necessary to overcome legal barriers to a Single
Euro Payment Area (SEPA).