A recent blog post on the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank’s website is blunt: to stay competitive financial institutions need to offer mobile remote deposit capture.
As for the impact on fraud of MRDC, the Atlanta Fed wrote: “We've seen no evidence in the past year to support an uptick in fraud.”
The blog continued: “However, we have ample evidence demonstrating that the product is becoming mainstream through the mobile channel. With four large financial institutions incorporating RDC with their mobile applications over the summer, eight out of the 10 largest depository institutions currently offer the product.”
A bottom line: the Fed said that there are plenty of well understood safeguards against mobile RDC related fraud and the key, said the blog, is KYC, Know Your Customer. It ticked off three points:
- The length of the customer's relationship. How long has the account been open?
- The depth of the customer's relationship. How many accounts does this consumer have with the institution?
- The experience with the customer. Does the customer have a history of depositing bad checks?
Know the customer, suggested the Fed, and it is straightforward to set limits – on deposit amounts and frequency – that will protect the institution.
This particular blog is authored by Douglas A. King, a payments risk expert at the Atlanta Fed. The blog is hosted on that Fed’s “Retail Payments Risk Forum.”
