Headlines:
Frost Sending Images to Fed
Frost National Bank of San Antonio has begun transmitting images of high-value checks to the Federal Reserve for processing.
VectorSGI of Addison, Tex., whose software it is using, said the bank has been transmitting the images daily since Feb. 28.
The software captures the images of checks from Frost's three item processing centers and packages them into the correct format for submission to the Fed, a bundle of images known as an X9.37 image cash letter file.
"Automatically transmitting high-dollar items to the Federal Reserve on a daily basis eliminates the chance of human error, improves efficiency, and positions Frost to confidently escalate its check image exchange volume," said David Rathke, a vice president at Frost, in Vector's press release.
The bank is a unit of the $10 billion-asset Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc. Vector, a unit of Metavante Corp., the technology subsidiary of the Milwaukee banking company Marshall & Ilsley Corp., said this month that it is working with 13 banks, including Frost, that may constitute as much as 40% of the market for image exchange.
On Wednesday the vendor also announced the availability of new software for creating image replacement documents - printouts of check images that banks can use to settle transactions.
The new software, Vector:MICR-Complete, captures the entire magnetic ink character recognition line from a check, as required by the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act as well as the rules for some image exchange networks, including the Fed's.
Most large banks capture the complete MICR line only from checks they clear internally; they drop some numbers or characters, such as dashes, from the checks they send to others, Vector said.
Frost is using the new software for reading MICR lines. "We wanted a process that would enable capture of all digits from the MICR line but allow us to avoid a costly reconfiguration of our check processing control system," Mr. Rathke said in the Vector press release on the new product.
Regions-Digital Insight Pact
Regions Financial Corp. of Birmingham, Ala., will start converting next month to upgraded online corporate banking software from Digital Insight Corp.
The $82.4 billion-asset banking company will also be putting customers of Union Planters Corp. of Memphis, which it bought last July, on the upgraded software.
The Digital Insight software, whose new features include alerts, is an upgrade of the Magnet Communications Inc. package that Regions has used for more than three years. Digital Insight bought Magnet, of Atlanta, in 2003.
The conversion is to be completed by November. Digital Insight, of Calabasas, Calif., announced the deal Wednesday.
Regions will simultaneously move Union Planters' retail and small-business accounts to its own online system, which is based on S1 Corp. software.
Sandy W. Wright, a senior vice president at Regions and its director of treasury management services, said preparations for the corporate banking conversion had been going very well. She would not discuss terms of the contract or say whose software Union Planters is now using for online corporate banking.
