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Bar Codes Offer Image Security
VeriSecure Systems Inc. has developed a check fraud prevention system that uses encryption to assign each check its own bar code.
Tom Chapman, the Fort Lauderdale company's founder, said in an interview that the VeriSecure software used in the system was tested recently by the Financial Services Technology Consortium. It was developed in conjunction with Inlite Research Inc. of Sunnyvale, Calif., a maker of bar code recognition and image-processing products.
Mr. Chapman said the software can include the check amount and payee name for use in positive-pay applications and can be verified from the point of presentment over the Internet through the use of public-key infrastructure, an encryption technology.
The system was announced Monday. Last week the Financial Services Technology Consortium urged banks to consider security features that can function after checks are converted to digital images.
Mr. Chapman said no bank has licensed the system from his company, which was founded in 2002, but he said he has presented the concept to a number of major banks that were involved in the FSTC test and an earlier image-security study sponsored by BITS, the technology arm of the Financial Services Roundtable.
He said the technology could also be used in nonfinancial applications, such as driver's licenses, passports, or prescriptions.
Frank Jaffe, the president of MorSecure, a technology security management firm in Falmouth, Maine, who led the FSTC's test of image-survivable security features, said that bar codes were one of three security applications that survive the transition from paper checks to digital images. The others were proprietary logos that are hard to reproduce, and unique features in the check design, such as typefaces or border design.
Several of the vendors in the study were small companies. The project's goal was to determine which technologies work, but not to promote specific approaches, Mr. Jaffe said.
Some vendors included in the study are well known in the industry, including the technology company Fiserv Inc. and the check printer Clarke American Checks Inc.
Fireside to Use Fiserv Software
Fireside Bank, a regional bank in Pleasanton, Calif., that also says it is one of the largest purchasers of nonprime automobile financing contracts, said Tuesday that it would use a car loan origination system from Fiserv Inc.'s LeMans unit.
The $1.1 billion-asset bank said the software speed up approval and funding by providing Internet access to lending portals such as DealerTrack and BigFNI. The modular software, based on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows architecture, can also support home equity loans, bank cards, and personal loans.
Because Fireside focuses on nonprime lending, it provides an important avenue for financing for many dealers, and the LeMans system's credit scoring techniques can automate risk management.
"The auto finance industry has been the early adopter of many innovations in banking," said Fred Reichelt, Fireside's president and chief executive, in a press release.
