Fed to speed up streamlined check processing

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve Banks on Monday set an accelerated schedule to streamline its check-processing system as more consumers and businesses shift to electronic payments from paper checks.

The move speeds up a change first announced in June 2007, when the Fed banks selected Philadelphia, Cleveland, Atlanta and Dallas as the sites that will continue to provide a full range of paper check-processing services.

The remaining sites will have their operations scaled back.

Seven sites will switch to reduced operations in 2008, versus five in the original plan. The entire process will wrap up in early 2010, a year earlier than expected.

Since 2003, the Reserve Banks have cut the number of locations where they process checks to 18 from 45.

(Reporting by Ros Krasny; Editing by Leslie Adler)