Lasertech embraces the e-delivery of statements

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. - One might think that a statement fulfillment company serving credit unions might be a little concerned about losing business because of NCUA's recent rule on e-delivery of statements. But not so says Lasertech CEO Mark Schulte. Lasertech, which does all the traditional statement services-printing, stuffing, and shipping-is ready for the electronic approach to statements, said Schulte. "The way we're going to handle this is to use our online data archival system to actually load member statement data into this secure online system for those credit unions that want to provide the statements electronically," said Schulte. However Schulte said the unique thing Lasertech is doing is sending e-mails to members with a link that will take them to their statement. Members will then input a password to view their statement. This method eliminates the member having to log on to their CU's site to view their statement. The members are accessing a Lasertech system directly. Schulte said Lasertech can also embed a link within a CU's home banking system for members to view their statements. Schulte said Lasertech is even helping credit unions with e-mailing the disclosures required for CUs to begin delivering statements electronically. Lasertech provides statement printing and mailing to about 300 credit unions. Schulte said providing the statements electronically is about 80% cheaper than the traditional print and mail method. "The real savings is in the postage. The postage is typically the largest expense a credit union pays to mail statements," said Schulte. Lasertech archives the data (statements) for the credit union. "The Internet has been the biggest change in our business in a long time. It's put us in a position to pipe data directly to members," said Schulte, who said Lasertech also offers access to other forms such as tax forms. Schulte sees a big market for e-delivery of statements. "I think that as more and more consumers get computers at home and get access to the Internet, you're going to see a larger percentage of this stuff electronically." Schulte said Lasertech is also innovating with nontech products. "One of the new things we're doing is custom messaging. It allows the credit union to provide custom messaging within the body of the statement based on the member's participation or lack of participation in credit union product offerings." Schulte said right now Lasertech is just looking at accounts and if a member doesn't have a car loan, for example, the CU can send them a statement message. He said in the future the analysis will get more sophisticated and the messages more specific. -pgentile@cutimes.com