A survey released last month found that about a third of Texas banks are using remote deposit capture technology — a rate on par with the rest of the nation — though the number of customers using it at each bank is lagging in comparison to the national average.
One reason the survey found some banks do not offer the technology was a concern about fraud.
The Independent Bankers Association of Texas and Abound Resources Inc., an Austin consulting firm that matches banks with providers of remote deposit technology, conducted the survey. Of the IBAT’s 520 member banks, 142 responded.
The average number of customers using the technology at each bank was almost 16, compared with the national average of 38 from a survey Celent LLC released in May. (Excluding the top 10 deployers from the national survey, the national average is 19.)
“Eighty percent” of the Texas banks surveyed “said they would use it more if they weren’t concerned about fraud,” said Sharon Sokol, the vice president of product development at Abound. “Also, a lot of them are only using it defensively. They are only offering it … when someone tries to take their customer away.”
But with more third-party vendors starting to offer remote deposit technology directly to banks’ customers, bankers need to be more aggressive in deploying it, she said, and she knows of no incident of a fraud attempt with the technology so far.
“Bankers need to find a way to get over it and mitigate the risk before people start taking their customers away,” Ms. Sokol said. “They need agreements that indemnify the bank and point out the responsibility for the bank and the customer. … They need to become more proactive and less defensive.”
Ramona Jones, the president of IBAT Services, a subsidiary marketing the trade group’s programs, said the survey was meant to help the group develop the right providers for member banks.
“We did this survey was so we could identify the position of our banks,” she said. “How many are using it and where they were in the process were key.”
The survey showed that small banks in Texas are lagging those in other parts of the country in adoption. Only 24% of the respondents with less than $1 billion of assets have implemented the technology, while nationally 32% had implemented.
Banks offering the technology should not be afraid to charge for it, because some of the most successful deployers are doing so, Ms. Sokol said.
About 90% of those providing the technology are charging a monthly fee that averages $62 and ranges from $25 to $150, while 62% charge a one-time installation fee that averages $383. And 45% charge a per deposit fee that ranges from 20 to 60 cents.
For the full survey and to see the best practices presentation on remote deposit capture from the IBAT conference in Fort Worth, visit
