Published by George on 09 Jun 2008
“The Future Ain’t What It Used to Be”
By George Guarini – CEO – Bay Commercial Bank
Yogi Berra once said; “The future ain’t what it used to be”. Well, he may have been right. I can remember during my formative years in banking, the prediction that the ATM card would lead to a check-less society. That was in the mid 1970’s and I am still waiting.
Technology however, has continued to evolve. Internet Banking was introduced and certainly raised a few eyebrows. At a minimum it gave businesses quick and easy access to information. While internet banking is certainly interesting, a new service has hit the scene that in my view is truly breakthrough.
The service, generically called Merchant Capture, was made possible with the passage of “Check 21”, or to be more specific the “Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act”. In laymen’s terms Check 21 created a new negotiable instrument, called a substitute check. In effect, a substitute check is the legal equivalent of the original check. While at first glance this did not strike one as exciting news, it did allow for the introduction of a product that literally moves banking at warp speed. It allowed for an environment wherein check images could be transmitted in lieu of the actual checks.
According to the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council there are now about 40 billion check transactions a year. The use of imaging for check processing, by banks, is a by-product of Check 21.
With the use of a scanner in tandem with a PC and an internet connection, business owners can now make check deposits to their bank, from the friendly confines of their own office.
The scanner captures the image of the front and back of the original check, captures the magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) line data from the original check and transmits the image and MICR line data in lieu of the original check so as to initiate the clearing process. Clients simply feed the checks through the scanner, wait for the images to appear on their computer screen and verify the check information. The scanner reviews batches and transmits check data to their bank.
Features of this product include same day deposits, extended banking hours, the ability to capture accounts receivable data for export to the client’s accounting system including up to 20 user defined fields and multi-level security access.
Benefits include faster access to your money, the ability to consolidate deposits from multiple locations to a single settlement account, having historical data at your fingertips, gaining control over returned items and ease of use and installation.
Clients may scan the checks as they receive them or at the end of their work day. There is no need for the client to go to the bank. There is no need to coordinate courier pick-up. There is no need to prepare time consuming check deposit slips. The business owner simply scans the check deposit and has more time to do the things that make money.
Yes indeed, the pendulum of technology is once again in motion. In my view merchant capture is eye-opening. If you are interested in this service, please keep in mind that your bank may have a different name for merchant capture so be sure to ask whether it offers its clients the ability to remotely scan check deposits. Merchant Capture is an extremely efficient process which in my view is always the business preference. To view details about this product, check out our scan-a-check brochure.
