Today in the U.S., we write about 40 percent of the number of checks we wrote in 2000. In 2000, roughly one-third of those checks were written by businesses, compared with about 45 percent today. This statistic suggests that consumers are moving to electronic payments faster than businesses are. Of course, businesses are on the receiving end of most of those consumer electronic payments, so your business may want to make separate decisions when selecting incoming and outgoing payment options. Our economy is long past the days when most payments were made in cash or even checks. One of the earliest responsibilities of the Federal Reserve System, enacted in 1913, was to create a national system for clearing checks as prerequisite to ensuring a nationwide economy.   Herewith is a tour of those options. Wire Transfers Wire transfers are fast and, once initiated by the sending bank, irreversible.   Generally, it’s not efficient to use wire transfers to pay bills becaus