Endpoint Exchange LLC, which operates an image exchange network used mostly by small financial institutions, has added some large ones.
The $210-billion-asset U.S. Bancorp, which joined a couple of weeks ago, was the second top-10 bank to use the network, following the $1.3-trillion-asset Bank of America Corp., which joined in November. And the $17 billion-asset Guaranty Bank of Austin said last week that it is using Endpoint Exchange.
"Certainly we're grasping the attention of the larger financial institutions," said Jeff Vetterick, Endpoint Exchange's general manager, in an interview last week from the Bank Administration Institute's annual TransPay conference in Las Vegas.
"Two years ago, getting a $10 billion-and-above-asset bank to stop by the Endpoint booth was very difficult," Mr. Vetterick said. This year nearly all the visitors were in the top 50.
He said that 95% of Endpoint's members have assets of $10 million to $10 billion. Endpoint Exchange is based in Oklahoma City and is owned by Metavante Corp., the technology unit of the Milwaukee banking company Marshall & Ilsley Corp.
Mike Meyer, Guaranty Bank's director of item processing services, said: "We don't really care so much about the size of the banks that are a part of Endpoint Exchange. We care about the volume of the checks that we can exchange through Endpoint Exchange."
Guaranty, a unit of Temple-Inland Inc., also of Austin, has been testing the system since early May. Mr. Meyer said that when it goes live, in a month or two, 5% of Guaranty's item volume will be exchanged over the network. It has been converting checks to images since 2004 for internal processing.
The connections to an array of small banks are an enticement to join the network, he said, but the larger banks, including two of the top 10, are a bigger draw.
Mr. Vetterick said 12 to 15 banks with assets of $16 billion to $18 billion are either using the network or preparing to use it.
The more financial companies using Endpoint, the easier it will be to sign new customers, said Alenka Grealish, who manages the banking group at the Boston market research firm Celent LLC.
"Volume begets volume," Ms. Grealish said. The number of banks using Endpoint "can only grow, and it will likely grow faster. The slope's going to steepen before it is going to flatten out."
She said she was not surprised that Bank of America and U.S. Bank had added themselves to a network commonly associated with smaller companies, because both have been enthusiastic supporters of image exchange.
That they are joining now is "a sign of confidence."
