Headlines:
Independence Tellers to Scan Checks CheckFree, Unisys Linking Biller Systems Automated Answers from Harrisdirect
Independence Tellers to Scan Checks
Independence Community Bank Corp., which has been bringing its check processing in-house, plans to convert most of its customers' checks into digital images at the teller window.
Steve Glass, the Brooklyn, N.Y., banking company's chief information officer, said it is linking its teller system with the Sierra Xpedite image-capture software from Alogent Corp. of Atlanta.
Mr. Glass said in an interview last week that he expects to start user-acceptance testing with Sierra Xpedite in June, and an operational pilot test at the teller windows in July or August. By yearend teller capture should be in operation throughout Independence's 125 branches in New York and New Jersey, he said.
In April of last year Independence bought Staten Island Bancorp, which was running its own image-enabled item-processing operation at a central data center. Independence was working with an outsourcer that Mr. Glass would not identify.
"We saw … [the Staten Island purchase] as a chance to move forward reasonably quickly," he said.
Today most of Independence's check clearing is handled in-house - only certain lockbox payments remain outsourced, he said - and teller capture is the next step in the conversion.
That does not mean all items will be converted into images at the teller window. For example, Mr. Glass said, when a business wants to deposit a pouch containing many checks, it would take too long to scan every item.
To make the teller lines move faster, the bank would accept these deposits "subject to verification," and the checks would be scanned, verified, balanced, and adjusted at the back counter, he said. "A significant part of the item processing is completed in the branch."
"We will be killing the paper at the branch, whether it's at the front counter or the back counter."
The change should enable Independence to adopt later daily deadlines, rather than closing the books at 3 p.m. or 4 p.m., he said.
Mr. Glass said the shift would help lower costs. Not only will Independence save on transportation expenses, but it will also cut costs for paper tickets and stock and can reduce staffing, especially in the reconciliation area.
CheckFree, Unisys Linking Biller Systems
CheckFree Corp. is working to link its accounts receivable conversion software to a lockbox processing system from Unisys Corp. of Blue Bell, Pa., for billers in the utility and communications industries.
CheckFree, of Atlanta, said Monday that the two systems have been cross-certified by both companies. Their technology is being combined to provide an integrated system for billers to convert consumer check payments to automated clearing house transactions using the ARC format.
Dominion Resources Inc., a Richmond, Va., gas and electric holding company, is the first company to use the integrated system. "Our metrics in all areas, including conversion, administrative returns and opt-out rates have been positive," Gwen Beadles, Dominion's director of customer billing and payment services, said in CheckFree's press release.
The Unisys agreement was the second recent milestone for CheckFree's ARC software.
Wausau Financial Systems Inc., a Mosinee, Wis., developer of imaging and transaction processing systems, announced Friday that more than 315 million payments, or nearly a third of all interbank ARC transactions, originated from Wausau's Optima3 ImageRPS remittance platform last year. The platform uses CheckFree's PEP+ reACH MICR database to validate check routing numbers from the magnetic ink character recognition line against the ACH routing codes.
Automated Answers from Harrisdirect
Harrisdirect LLC, a Chicago online brokerage unit of Bank of Montreal, has begun offering its customers an "automated service agent" to answer common questions from investors.
Conversagent Inc., the New York provider of the "Ask Harrisdirect" tool, said it is the first such resource in the financial services industry. People can pose their questions online using conventional "natural language," Conversagent said, and receive answers that help them further specify their query.
Harrisdirect began using the system Monday to provide information about trading, account management, and other topics.
The automated agent is designed to reduce call center volume. It works with customer relationship management databases from numerous vendors to enable a two-way exchange between the customer and the database.
