Tech Bytes: Royal Bank of Scotland Hires EDS as Processor

PLANO, Tex. - Royal Bank of Scotland has signed a 10-year check processing contract with Electronic Data Systems Corp., a leading provider of such services.

Under the agreement, EDS will set up two check processing centers, near London and in Scotland. The centers, which will initially process about 300 million items per year for the Edinburgh-based bank, will form the backbone of a national check processing operation that will enable EDS to provide back-office services to financial institutions throughout the United Kingdom.

Through EDS' service, financial institutions will be able to consolidate check processing volumes and take advantage of sophisticated technology based on image processing.

The development of the U.K.-based check operation is a step toward EDS' creation of a global payment structure, said Dan Talbott, managing director of payment systems at the Texas company.

EDS will automate Royal Bank's check-return process and provide image- based signature review capabilities a check-inquiry system to improve customer service.

The bank's old reader-sorters will be replaced with newer models from International Business Machines Corp.

The new equipment will still process about 40 checks per second, but will be able to make more decisions and edits per item in that time - speeding processing by reducing the number of times an item is handled.

EDS is a unit of General Motors Corp.

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