The cash-handling company Loomis Fargo & Co. expects to be up and running next month with a remote check-capture service with a difference - our place, not yours - ahead of its rival Brink's Co.
Many banks already enable corporate customers to scan checks in their own offices and transmit the digitized result for deposit. But Loomis, a Houston subsidiary of the Swedish Securitas AB, will collect checks, bring them to one of its processing sites, and scan them there.
"Banks have realized, 'We don't really want a check processor; we really want a capture point,' " said Pete Silewicz, the senior vice president of banking services at Loomis.
Brink's, of Richmond, Va., said in August 2004 that it would offer a similar service. It said it was installing check scanners at its 105 cash vaults around the country for the job and would transmit the images to banks through NetDeposit Inc., a unit of Zions Bancorp.
Paul Blachowicz, a spokesman for Brink's, described the project Tuesday as a "proof of concept." He would not discuss its operational status, except to say, "We continue to work with customers to flesh out" the service.
Royce Brown, the president and chief operating officer of NetDeposit, said the vendors are ahead of the market. "Right now corporate-direct is the No. 1 priority for most of the banks," Mr. Brown said. "This is coming up fast on its heels. There's a lot of interest in it."
Mr. Silewicz said Loomis is now testing its own service with three banks; he would not name them. Next month, he said, the first bank customer is likely to announce its service.
Stessa Cohen, a retail banking analyst at the research and consulting firm Gartner Inc. of Stamford, Conn., said there is room for another competitor in the evolving check-capture business.
"There's still a lot of confusion in the market," Ms. Cohen said. "Loomis is the No. 2 provider, so it makes sense they would come in after Brink's."
