U.S. Bancorp is offering software that will allow its corporate clients to convert paper checks into digital check images at the customers' offices, and the images can be used to make electronic deposits or converted into automated clearing house transactions.
The Minneapolis company announced the product's general availability Monday. It said its U.S. Bank unit will supply check scanning machines and software to commercial customers that receive payments at either drop-box or walk-in locations. Consumer checks can be converted into ACH transactions, using the accounts receivable conversion format, or ARC.
The software, U.S. Bank On-Site Electronic Deposit, produces an electronic deposit for items that are ineligible for conversion, such as business checks and credit card "courtesy checks." This enables banks to process the deposits faster, U.S. Bank said.
Veronica Correa-Janssen, a senior vice president and the head of treasury management product development at U.S. Bank, said the system also supports ACH conversion at the point of presentment, or POP conversion. In the first quarter of 2005, the software is expected to support merchant acceptance of credit cards.
Other banks, including Bank of America Corp., First Horizon National Corp., and NetBank Inc., have also introduced check deposit services that use remote image capture at customer sites. But those systems have focused on using images to accelerate deposits, rather than ACH.
U.S. Bank began piloting the system in June with 10 commercial clients, each of which was capturing images at two or three sites. A wider rollout began Tuesday, Ms. Correa-Janssen said.
