LAS VEGAS – BAI's Retail Delivery Conference & Expo, unlike many credit union conferences, is a true trade show, meaning exhibitors' wares are one of the main attractions. This year was no different. Here's a look at some of the product and solution announcements that made news: * Advanced Financial Solutions, a firm many credit union item processors are relying on for imaging software, launched its AFS Direct suite that is designed to allow financials to do item-image capture at the source, such as merchant sites, lockboxes, branches and ATMs. The product suite is another way AFS is trying to build business stemming from Check 21. One of the products allows businesses to capture items and send to their financial institution. Some experts say this may be an option CUs want to consider for their largest commercial accounts, though the concept more likely makes sense for commercial banks. * What's the weather like? Transoft International announced its OptiCa$h/Weather currency management. It is designed to help financials find a pattern between cash demand and weather. “The intention is to allow for more informed decisions by users on what drives up or down the cash demand. For instance, while rain will slow down the demand for outdoor ATMs, it can give a boost for indoor or drive-through ATMs,” said Brian Lee, VP of Technology for Transoft. * For credit unions looking for a small footprint ATM, NCR launched its EasyPoint 62 ATM machine. It is designed specifically for low volume branch and retail locations. NCR says the small footprint, indoor ATM has one of the largest, brightest screens in its class, yet it allows for low levels of energy consumption, state-of-the-art security and rapid, easy deployment with low total cost of ownership. NCR says its footprint is up to 40% smaller than comparable ATMs. * Digital Check Corp. has released a new Check 21-compliant application program interface (API) for its widely used TellerScan compact, desktop check scanners. The new API follows the metrics defining what is a quality image as determined by a task force of the Financial Services Technology Consortium, the company said. Digital Check is offering a free white paper on the FSTC metrics for quality images at www.digitalcheck.com/iqa. * Fiserv announced a new product to help reduce fraud surrounding one of the key byproducts of Check 21 – the substitute check. Fiserv has introduced IRD Seal, a product that helps authenticate substitute checks and ideally prevent fraud. Fiserv developed IRD Seal along with document technology firm Enseal Systems. The companies describe the product as an “image survivable security feature that contains encoded information specific to the substitute check, including the original MICR information and the truncating and re-converting bank information.” IRD Seal is in some ways already a proven technology. It is an application of Fiserv's Secure Seal technology that is part of Fiserv's FraudGuard suite. * Yodlee used BAI as an opportunity to announce its Bill Direct for Card Issuers and Direct Payments SDK products. The products are designed to allow consumers to make same day payments via online banking and to pay with a credit or debit card to earn card rewards. Yodlee says for financial services firms, this is another opportunity to earn interchange and finance charges to make electronic bill pay more profitable. * Identity Theft 911 introduced a new retainer-based approach to identity theft services for credit unions, banks and other businesses. The San Francisco-based provider of identity theft resolution, defense and education services calls the new service the RB421 program. The program provides the company's services to any group selected by the client organization for a fixed monthly fee. The company said it already had signed the Community Bankers of Wisconsin, which will offer the retainer-based service to its more than 200 member banks to offer to customers. The offering may sound a bit familiar to some credit unions. Liberty Enterprises earlier this year also began offering Identity Theft 911's package of branded credit reports, e-mail alerts and resolution services. * With an eye on helping its clients serve the business market, FundsXPress has partnered with TransFirst, a provider of transaction processing and payment services. FundsXPress will now be able to integrate its online products such as cash management, Internet banking and bill payment with TransFirst's transaction processing, merchant acquiring and reporting products, said the two companies, which together serve more than 1,300 financial institutions. Dallas-based TransFirst has operations facilities in Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, California, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. It currently processes approximately $18.5 billion in annual sales volume for more than 150,000 merchants and more than 760 banks.