MEMPHIS — By implementing a solution to add check scanning to the teller line, Orion FCU here has saved time and reduced losses.
Stuart Harrington, general counsel for Orion, explained that prior to implementing Bluepoint Solutions' ImagePoint Teller system, the 54,000-member, $531 million credit union had to scan all checks at the end of each day, a process that could take as long as 40 minutes.
With the new teller capture system, however, tellers scan each check as the member deposits it.
"It's done earlier in the day, and these scanners are so fast that it doesn't take them very long to do it, so it doesn't take much transaction time and allows the tellers to give more attention to the members," said Harrington. Additionally, the new system can better identify bad checks, saving members and the credit union money.
Preventing $100K In Annual Losses
While the CU still sees between $5,000 and $10,000 in bad checks each month, that's a marked decrease from the old system, he said, which sometimes saw as much as $50,000 in bad checks per month. Orion estimates the new Bluepoint solution is preventing as much as $100,000 in annual losses.
The attorney noted that the Orion is saving money not just because of the dollar amount of bad checks, but also in the sheer volume of checks. Each time the credit union sees an overdraft, employees have to route the check through the proper channels and sometimes even contact attorneys. "Even on ones where it wouldn't ultimately cause a loss, it causes massive inconvenience to the members and a lot of work on the back end for us."
Part of why Orion elected the Bluepoint solution, according to Harrington, is because of its intuitive interface, which meant that employees needed very little training to implement it. "I'm talking one to two training sessions per branch, not tons and tons of training," he said, adding that once training was complete there were very few problems.
Unexpected Secondary Savings, Too
Harrington said he could not reveal what it cost the credit union to implement the new solution — which was also tied in with a core conversion — but said that along with direct savings due to decreased losses, there have been multiple, unexpected secondary savings.
"We were getting returns from the Fed," explained Harrington. "A check wouldn't bounce, but the Fed would return it because the image was too bad. That means someone had to track down the original check to re-scan it, and that almost never happens now with the new scanners. It's also more efficient because we don't have to staff so many people at once, and we can spend more time with members."
The new system has saved Orion FCU money, but Harrington said that might not necessarily be the case for all CUs, not only because of significant up-front costs to put in the new scanners, but "if they're on an older one, they may not get all the efficiencies." He also noted that for CUs who aren't seeing many losses on checks or dealing with significant numbers of returned items, the return might be less significant.
"The tellers used to have to walk away from the member to scan a check; now it happens right there at their station and they never have to lose eye contact with the member," said Harrington. "The member might even think we got rid of a process."
