Welcome to the March issue of the Heavyweight, with developments in this month's banking and insolvency law. Some interesting items to note this month:

Cheques - I have included a full note of the UK Payments Council's submission to the Treasury Select Committee which sets out the reasons for opening the debate on the abolition of cheques. This is followed in the Heavyweight by the response of the robust Mr McFall, "we are not convinced that cheques are in terminal decline and I think you really have to reappraise that."

Industrial and Provident Societies are no longer to be known by that name. They are now to be called "co-operative society" or a "community benefit society" and once The Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies and Credit Unions Act 2010 (Royal Assent on 18 March 2010) comes into force, any new society (other than a credit union) will need to be registered with the FSA.

Consultation on the registration of company charges began by BIS on 12 March for three months on proposed changes to the scheme for registration of company charges set out in the Companies Act 2006. The issues include what charges should be registered, time limits, consequences of registration and of the failure to register, procedures, electronic registration, availability of information about a company's charges, overseas companies, specialist registries and others.

You might like to note the development of the Calendar on the front pages with more information about developments expected in the coming months.

Click here for the March issue of:

The Heavyweight: Coverage of this month's banking and insolvency law

This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq

Law-Now information is for general purposes and guidance only. The information and opinions expressed in all Law-Now articles are not necessarily comprehensive and do not purport to give professional or legal advice. All Law-Now information relates to circumstances prevailing at the date of its original publication and may not have been updated to reflect subsequent developments.

The original publication date for this article was 09/04/2010.