As smart-phone use and consumer demand for mobile-banking applications increase, Bluepoint Solutions has developed a mobile remote-deposit capture application that enables smaller financial institutions to participate in what is likely to become the next big trend in self-service banking.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. recently became the first major U.S. financial institution to offer mobile remote-deposit capture (
Community banks and credit unions competing for customers with large financial institutions might find mobile remote-deposit capture necessary, says Andrew Tilbury, Bluepoint director of marketing and communications.
From the financial institution’s perspective, the technology should be attractive because “it reduces branch traffic, expands the geographic range of an institution and helps attract a younger, tech-savvy consumer” that might otherwise not have an interest in a smaller bank.
Tilbury declined to reveal which banks are testing the product.
Bluepoint’s offering works in much the same way as other mobile remote-deposit capture products. Users initiate mobile-banking sessions, key in their deposit amount, and snap images of both the front and back of the check with their smart phone cameras. The software captures the check images, formats them, automatically corrects any image distortions or skewing, and confirms the images meet Check 21 and mobile image-quality standards (
Smaller financial institutions likely will be the most interested in mobile remote-deposit capture, says Bob Meara, a senior analyst at Celent LLC, a Boston-based research and consulting firm.
Many of those institutions were drivers of remote deposits using images created with scanners connected to a customer’s home computer. “Almost without exception, they were relatively small [community] banks and credit unions who [had a small branch footprint],” Meara says.
Mobile remote-deposit capture will help those financial institutions “expand their financial footprint,” Meara adds.
Bluepoint has developed the application for use on Apple Inc.’s iPhone, Research In Motion Ltd.’s Blackberry and phones using Google Inc.’s Android system. The Vista, Calif.-based software developer also plans to develop the application for Microsoft Inc. Windows Mobile platform.
Such variety has been lacking in the mobile-banking space. Many large banks, including Chase, have developed mobile applications only for the iPhone.
USAA Federal Savings Bank, which last year added mobile remote-deposit capture to its mobile application, offers the service for Android phones and iPhones.
The lack of Android options is likely the result of a bank’s vendor, Meara says. “Those vendors started with iPhone because that was the killer platform at the time,” he adds.
Banks and vendors likely will give Android greater priority as its use and popularity increases, Meara says.
Bluepoint’s Tilbury believes the company’s bank partners most likely will choose the device they are most interested in. “Ultimately, everyone is going to see the logic of offering as many variations as they can,” he says.
Tilbury did not reveal when banks would move out of pilots and into rollouts.
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