The eurocheque, a cross-border European payment mechanism for 30 years, has fallen victim to the rise of the bank card and is being phased out.

Europay, the European payments group linked to MasterCard, said yesterday it would remove the guarantee from eurocheques from January 1 2002, just as euro notes and coins are being introduced into the single currency region. One banker said it was, in effect, the death-knell for the eurocheque.