Check imaging solutions have advanced rapidly in the six yearssince the Check 21 act took effect. Now, even the late adopters areselecting imaging platforms, and those that were early adopters arereevaluating their selections. The maturation of check imagingsolutions resulted in a broad array of options to meet theindividual needs of each credit union. Of course, with all thoseoptions come hard decisions. The first big decision to be made as acredit union evaluates its current distributed check-captureservice or considers investing in one for the first time, isselecting the point or points of capture.

Front-counter capture–imaging items at the teller line intransaction mode–and back-counter capture–imaging items away fromthe teller line in batch mode–both have advantages to beconsidered. In fact, some credit unions benefit from blending bothsystems. Major factors to consider when evaluating these processesinclude:

• The total volume of transactions typicallyhandled,

• The item count within normal transactions,

• Hardware and existing infrastructure,

• The credit union's risk profile for negative checkverification, and

• The expectations and responsibilities of the creditunion's teller staff.

Front-counter capture requires tellers to scan items in realtime, as the transaction takes place with the member present.During this process each teller captures the image, checks foraccuracy (including amount, MICR line completion and image quality)and completes transaction balancing. A strong check-capturesolution that is integrated with the teller platform makes thisprocess fast and easy to manage, freeing tellers from having tomanually compute full transactions. Handling the process in frontof the member allows tellers to deal with incorrect or incompleteinformation immediately, providing balanced transaction validationto the member. Additionally, a strong relationship managementsystem gives tellers an opportunity to promote and cross sell basedon specific member information while the checks are beingscanned.

As far as supporting technology is concerned, an integratedteller capture platform requires a direct interface with the tellersystem, which is necessary to ensure efficiency. Also, creditunions implementing front-counter capture will deploy a scanner forevery teller station. This can be a significant investment,depending on the branch infrastructure, but the pricing options forscanners have decreased dramatically over the years. Today, creditunions should be able to find the type of hardware that meets theirbranch and budget needs.

Back-counter capture occurs off the teller line, either near theteller line or in a separate branch office. It does not require aninterface with the teller system and can reduce the number ofemployees that need to be trained on the scanning process. Thesystem operates in batch mode, processing large volumes with asingle capture flow. An employee performs required steps tocomplete the batch but only on necessary items. These steps couldinclude some combination of recapturing image quality failures,completing required keying for amounts and MICR information andbalancing the batch.

Smaller credit unions can benefit from back-counter capturebecause it may not require a significant monetary investment. Forinstance, a credit union with five branches in close proximity toeach other may choose to scan its images at only a few of thebusiest branches, thus only requiring a hardware purchase andsoftware installation at those branches. By selecting a flexiblesolution, the credit union can then expand its imaging platform asdesired.

Some credit unions choose to implement both front- andback-counter capture to maximize efficiency. This method can beuseful for those credit unions that handle a consistent mix oflarger commercial deposits from business accounts and typicallysmaller deposit retail accounts. The results offer both costsavings and a faster transaction time.

Other situations that benefit from a dual platform includecredit unions using teller capture where they might still need backoffice capture for envelope-based ATM deposits, mail-in payments orloan and credit card payments.

Clearly, teller and back-counter capture both have benefits totoday's credit unions. In some cases, a mix of both is the bestsolution. Whichever the case, credit unions should evaluate theircurrent situations and make sure that they are leveraging the bestsolution to meet their individual business needs. Both earlyadopters and latecomers need to evaluate all options. 

Jon Reneslacis is director of solutions engineering atVSoft Corp.
Contact 770-840-0097 ext. 1012 or [email protected]