DIGITAL BEARER SETTLEMENT |
BOOK ENTRY |
A check is a request to your bank to move money up, and then back down, another financial ziggurat of offsetting book-entries called the automated clearinghouse system, eventually landing in the bank account of the person you wrote the check to.
Even though global currency transactions are executed geodesically -- directly between bank to bank -- the transactions still settle on a book-entry basis over SWIFT, or other international funds transfer systems, and thus move hierarchically to settle, especially for smaller banks.