Members of the $14.3 billion Pentagon Federal Credit Union have responded with enthusiasm to a program that allows them to make deposits from the convenience of their homes.
The credit union began offering its members "Deposit Anywhere" with the help of a program called consumer source capture from FiServ in June. The program places a link on the members' home banking page on the credit union's website and to use the program the member clicks the link.
Gary Brand, director of source capture optimization for Fiserv, said the program takes advantage of scanning technology that is becoming increasingly prevalent in many homes, often as part of a computer printer or other device.
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He said he tests new products and services with his mother, who is in her 70s. When he first sent her a link to the service, he said she called him to say that she didn't have a scanner but that he reminded her that there was a flatbed scanner in the computer printer that she had gotten as a Christmas present last year.
"She said OK and hung up, and then about two minutes later she called back to tell me that it worked like a dream."
"The adoption rate has soared beyond our expectations. In fact, we had members using Deposit Anywhere before we had even begun to market it," said Mike Williams, vice president for applications management for Pentagon. "Clearly, our members found this easy to use and convenient, and we expect to see adoption continue to climb. This is just part of PenFed's overall strategy of moving more members and transactions to the online channel."
The credit union said that roughly 1,700 of its members had started to use the service as of the end of September.
Brand said the service's particular strength was that it didn't require anything to be loaded onto the members' computer systems and the credit union retained the ability to offer or remove the service at will.
Similar check imaging systems sometimes require users to load a software package onto their computers to scan checks, but the fact that Deposit Anywhere is a remote service that requires nothing more than a link to use made it very easy to manage, Brand explained.
In Pentagon's case, the credit union has limited deposits made through this system to less than $5,000 and limited members eligible to use the service to those who had been members for at least six months and who had either a checking, share savings or money market account with the institution.
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