WASHINGTON – Making good on its ongoing plan to identify ways to use image technology to improve the check return process, the Federal Reserve last month introduced its latest initiative – FedImage Services – a new image service for financial institutions. Formally unveiled at BAI's TransPay 2002 Transaction & Processing Conference held May 8-10 in Anaheim, Calif., the agency said FedImage Services is designed to be a total image management solution, from capture to archive to retrieval of check images. Currently the Federal Reserve's average daily image capture volume is more than 10.8 million items. It is the largest single, nationwide processor of checks, processing more than 17 billion check payments annually. The 12 Reserve banks process in total more than one-third of the checks written in the U.S. The Fed said the service allows participating financials to retrieve high-resolution images of checks electronically in less than three hours after they're captured. FedImage Service is currently live with 16 financials in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. The Fed plans to introduce it nationwide through the first quarter of 2003.