Corporate One's Phased Approach to Check 21 Continues; ACE Implementation Gives CUs a Central Archive

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Corporate One has entered a new phase of its Check 21 efforts, one that will give members some immediate benefit and make electronic image exchange as easy as turning on a light switch. Of course that switch can’t be turned on until the banking industry catches up with CUs and makes electronic exchange a reality. Corporate One has started to roll out Automated Capture & Exchange (ACE). It allows CUs to stop microfilming and start scanning and archiving checks, savings bonds, loan coupons and other items. The images will be archived on MemberView, Corporate One’s Web-based account management system, for seven years and will be available for CUs to retrieve electronically and push out to their members via their home banking systems. The home banking enhancement is the immediate benefit, but this also ensures the CUs have the system in place to start exchanging images when the time comes, said Robert Coyan, SVP of marketing and operations for Corporate One. “It means we will have the ability to bring in images from any point of presentment and populate an archive here,” he said. Corporate One is providing the hardware and software to its members through relationships it developed with vendors. “To avoid complications, we really wanted to control this for our membership from the get go,” said Coyan, himself a former executive with Alogent, a popular vendor for image exchange products and one Corporate One has partnered with. Products involved in ACE include SierrarXpediter, deposit automation software from Alogent. The hardware includes the Unisys My Vision X check scanner. Credit unions can get either 30 documents (front and back) per minute or 60 documents per minute scanners. There is also a PC bundle and a prepaid shipping maintenance plan that could save credit unions a lot of headaches should a scanner fail. “If you have a scanner fritz out on you, you put the scanner in an overnight Fed Ex box and someone at the end of the 800 number you called, has just boxed up a new one for you,” said Moyan. Moyan said the way Corporate One has set up the archive, in which it can populate the archive from any point of presentment, gives its members some other back-up advantages. In a pinch a credit union experiencing scanning problems could conceivably go to a nearby credit union and send their items from there without any risk of mixing items on Corporate One’s archive. The items are grouped by member ID. “We’re putting together the foundation for a shared scanner network, where they can rely on each other. Smaller credit unions may opt to go in this direction,” said Moyan. Smaller CUs without a lot of check volume could strike a deal with a local, larger CU and come once a week for example to send their items from there and not have to invest in the scanning equipment. ACE has been piloted by Credit Union of Ohio, KEMBA Financial CU and KEMBA CU. These credit unions are also still sending items physically to Corporate One at this point. The second phase of ACE will begin once the Fed, clearinghouses and banks get up to speed with image clearing, and will allow CUs to settle electronically. Just when does Moyan see that happening? “I’m very optimistic. We’re looking at a nice ramp up over the next year and a half. There will be significant activity in the latter part of 2006 and into 2007,” said Moyan. He said to show how far behind some banks are, when Bank of America and Wachovia exchanged 4,000 items with each other, it drew headlines in banking pubs, while it’s commonplace for the credit union industry. “Several of us in this industry have done that at some point over the past six to eight months,” he said. [email protected]