The decision to early adopt imaging technology is paying off now for the $5.4 billion American Airlines Federal Credit Union.

The Fort Worth-based cooperative serves the airline's employees and other airlines professionals nationwide, and implemented branch capture technology at its 43 branches back in May 2007. The hardware, software and implementation required a $126,000 investment that paid for itself in five months thanks to $30,000 saved on courier fees and $105,000 worth of additional bank interest earned during that period. The technology contributed $342,000 in income and cost savings to 2007's bottom line and another $124,000 in 2008.

"The implementation of branch capture offered us both monetary and non-monetary benefits," said Satya Bhadriraju, manager of back office processing for AAFCU. In addition to the elimination of branch courier costs and increased income from bank interest, she said the 213,000 member credit union filed zero fraud claims on transit items in 2007 and 2008 as a result of faster clearing, and can more easily research deposits thanks to the software's indexing capabilities.