Center Bank of Los Angeles outsources its check processing but says it is improving its in-house fraud detection by upgrading the way it examines check images.
Jong Choi, an executive vice president and the chief operating officer at the banking unit of $1.7 billion-asset Center Financial Corp., said in an interview this month that the bank will begin developing a database of customer check images next month.
Developing the database will take three months but will enable it to spot forged checks by examining their type fonts, borders, address information, and other features and comparing them to the images in the database, he said.
Center Bank is using software from SQN Banking Systems of Rancocas, N.J., to develop the database and analyze the images. The bank has been using other software in SQN's Sentry suite for five months to display signature and photo-ID information at teller stations in its 17 branches and to automate back-office check validation. That software flags items for amounts that are unusual for a given account, as well as checks with duplicate or out-of-sequence serial numbers.
"We have found a number of items that were forged or counterfeit," Mr. Choi said. "This technology protects not only the bank, but the customer as well."
Center outsources its check processing to Fidelity National Information Services Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla., which transmits images formatted for the fraud-fighting software to the bank.
Center also uses an SQN workflow application to draw information from a number of sources to review exception items and make pay/no pay decisions, he said.
