NEW YORK — Over the past two days, two separate reports have highlighted remote deposit capture offerings from financial institutions to small businesses but new findings suggest interest may not be as strong–yet.

Released yesterday, a report from Celent, a division of Oliver Wyman, surveyed 335 small and micro businesses, found that demand for remote deposit capture is "latent." RDC adoption will be gradual, taking two more years to reach the 10% mark, the firm noted. Celent expects the majority of direct sales and marketing activities to be focused on businesses above $1 million in revenue.

"Two things jump out of this research," said Bob Meara, author of the report and senior analyst with Celent's Banking group. "The first is just how important checks are to small businesses. In our survey, checks represent 75% or more of total receivables for over two-thirds of small businesses. Second is the terrific opportunity for remote deposit among the smallest businesses, 20 million of them with annual revenues of less than $1 million."