(BelTA) – American Express will terminate the sale of traveler’s cheques in Belarus on 1 August, says a report posted on the website of Belarusbank, BelTA has learnt.

“The American Express company (United States) that issues American Express traveler’s cheques has decided to stop the sale of traveler’s cheques on the territory of Belarus starting from 1 August 2013. In this connection, American Express traveler’s cheques will be available at Belarusbank only until 31 July 2013,” Belarusbank informed. Belarusbank will accept American Express traveler’s cheques until 30 November 2013.

At present a number of banks in Belarus accept American Express traveler’s cheques; they are Belarusbank, Belagroprombank, Belinvestbank, BPS-Sberbank and MTBank. Several Belarusian banks accept traveler’s cheques issued by other companies. For example, BPS-Sberbank accepts Interpayment Visa and Master Card cheques by Travelex Global & Financial Services London England.

On 1 August the sale of American Express traveler’s cheques will be discontinued in Russia. Representatives of American Express do not comment on this decision. Experts believe that the move was prompted by the declining demand for traveler’s cheques in connection with increasing popularity of non-cash payments using banking cards and the expansion of the related infrastructure.

A traveler’s cheque is designed to allow the person signing it to make an unconditional payment to someone else as a result of having paid the issuer for that privilege. One of the major advantages of traveler's cheques is that they can usually be replaced if lost or stolen. The biggest issuers of traveler’s cheques are American Express (American Express, CitiCorp) and Travelex (Visa Interpayment, Thomas Cook Mastercard).