DALLAS – Southwest Corporate FCU said it has introduced an Image Deposit Return service in the Federal Reserve’s 11th District and plans a nationwide roll-out next month.
The new service automates the process of handling returned items from member deposits—eliminating paper check delivery to the credit union. Returns are sent directly to Southwest Corporate from its direct-exchange banks, image exchange networks and the Federal Reserve Bank—reducing potential for losses by providing faster information delivery.
Southwest Corporate has been working with the Federal Reserve in a "beta mode" to develop this service for credit unions and is one of the few institutions that has now "gone live" with the service.
There are 259 credit unions in the Fed’s 11th District—already processing or settling their share drafts and utilizing Southwest Corporate’s deposit services—that will be eligible to begin the new service. The Fed’s 11th District consists of areas including all of Texas, the northern portion of Louisiana and the southern portion of New Mexico.
The Federal Reserve Bank’s announcement of its intent to collapse all paper check processing into the Cleveland office by fourth quarter 2009 has left many credit unions anticipating expensive courier charges and delays in the delivery of deposit returns. Southwest Corporate’s Image Deposit Return service is a cost-effective alternative that will enable credit unions to see return items online days earlier.
With the service, deposit returns will be routed electronically to Southwest Corporate, rather than delivered by courier to a credit union’s central office. Using credit union-specific criteria, Southwest Corporate can automate the re-deposit of non-sufficient funds items, report additional maker and/or payee information, and provide content-rich deposit detail reports through its online account management system.
