Headlines:
Image Cash Letter Service from B of A Mitek Returns to 'Financial Health' Ultimate Software Signs Up BECU
Image Cash Letter Service from B of A
Bank of America Corp. is offering an image cash letter service to corporate customers that process large numbers of checks.
The Charlotte company said Wednesday that it had completed a pilot program for the service, which enables companies to convert checks into digital images and transmit them to the bank for deposit, and that it is now offering the service commercially.
Several customers are already using the service, including a major processor of high-volume, low-value payments, a large bank holding company that has more than 6 million customers in 50 states, and a financial institution in Central America. B of A did not name any of the customers.
The cash letter service is designed for both financial institution trading partners and corporate clients. Customers use their own hardware and software to produce the image files and to transmit them to B of A, which settles the payments either by sending the files across an image exchange network or by printing substitute checks.
B of A also offers a remote image-capture service to companies that process lower volumes of checks. It began piloting that service in November 2003 and says it now processes more than 5 billion checks a month that way.
Aileen Gleason, a senior vice president at B of A, said in an interview Wednesday that the image cash letter service would be most useful to corporate clients that have large in-house lockbox operations, typically processing 20,000 checks a month or more, such as regional utility companies.
Those customers would need to have the capability to build an electronic file known as an X9.37, a technical standard defining the data elements and data structure of the cash letter. Remote-capture customers use simpler technology to transmit check images to B of A over the Internet.
Ms. Gleason would not identify any customers or say how many B of A has, but she said, "We've had tremendous interest in our image cash letter service from our corporate clients."
And while bank-to-bank file transfers are mostly being conducted over closed networks, "corporate clients typically will come into us directly," using B of A's Internet cash management system, she said.
B of A began transmitting image cash letters last December to Wachovia Corp., using the SVPCO Image Payments Network operated by Clearing House Payments Co. LLC of New York.
It began using images to clear checks electronically with SunTrust Banks Inc. in July, through the shared repository operated by Viewpointe Archive Services LLC of Charlotte.
On Nov. 18, it began transmitting image cash letters to two smaller banks using Viewpointe's connection with the Endpoint Exchange Network, which is operated by the Metavante Corp. unit of the Milwaukee banking company Marshall & Ilsley Corp.
B of A says it is the only bank connected to the four major image-clearing networks, the fourth being the one run by the Federal Reserve System.
Mitek Returns to 'Financial Health'
Mitek Systems Inc. said Wednesday that increased demand for its image analytics and character recognition software helped the company turn a profit in its fiscal fourth quarter.
Mitek, of Poway, Calif., reported a net profit of $458,000 for the quarter, which ended Sept. 30. In the year-earlier period it had a net loss of $523,000.
Net sales rose 270%, to $2 million. Net sales for the full year rose 27%, to $6.6 million. The company narrowed its full-year net loss, $3.8 million in fiscal 2004, to $1 million.
Mitek said there has been more demand both for the character recognition and fraud detection kits it sells to its original equipment manufacturers and for an anti-fraud product it sells directly to community banks.
James DeBello, Mitek's president and chief executive, said in a press release that these figures represent "our return to financial health."
He said Mitek incurred some costs in the quarter from shifting its product focus and hiring new management. But "from this point on, we are focused on growth and enter fiscal year 2006 with a strong management foundation, an expanded sales team, and market-proven fraud detection and recognition products," he said.
Mr. DeBello added that the image analysis and fraud detection products Mitek markets to banks also appeal to industries such as health care and retail. Mitek is also looking to acquire "complementary technologies and businesses" in 2006, he said.
Ultimate Software Signs Up BECU
The Seattle credit union BECU has agreed to use work-force management software from Ultimate Software Group Inc.
The Weston, Fla., vendor said Wednesday that BECU (formerly Boeing Employees Credit Union) had selected its UltiPro software in September and that it expects cost savings of $250,000 over the next three years.
BECU has been using products from several other vendors, including an outdated resource-planning application running on a UNIX system that it said has had few updates in the past six years. The UltiPro software runs on servers using Microsoft Corp. operating systems.
BECU said it expects to discontinue several third-party software applications because their functions are included in UltiPro. Greg Stannard, a BECU manager, said in Ultimate Software's press release that "with UltiPro, we believe we will get a better product for less money."
