Consumers Can Now Scan and Deposit Cheques from Home.
Consumers Can Now Scan and Deposit Cheques from Home.
February 8, 2008: CheckFree have announced new consumer capture technology which allows financial institution customers to make deposits from their home.
Scanning cheques has always seemed an attractive option, particularly for the accounts clerk processing endless piles of autographed paper slips, the new breakthrough from CheckFree may make this more of a reality.
Having been recently acquired by Fiserv, CheckFree is promising simple, easy-to-use functionality for the consumer without jeopardising security, fraud identification or processing quality required by modern financial institutions.
"Consumer capture will fundamentally change the way consumers interact with their financial institution, brokerage firm, utility or other payment processor when depositing checks. By offering consumer capture, financial institutions can quickly provide an online product that will attract new customers without regard to geographic territory; accelerating expansion beyond their brick and mortar branches," said Mike Ringuette, executive vice president, Fiserv Global Payments.
One of the major hurdles that such an ambitious piece of software will face is overcoming the hesitations and concerns of end users who place great faith in the written cheque and not its digital counterpart. CheckFree believes that competition in financial institution markets is so fierce that organisations must continually seek to offer new and innovative products to retain existing customers, so it’s likely this will be a key selling point.
"Security and convenience are driving consumers to seek new and innovative service offerings to enhance their banking experience. In the race to entice and retain retail customers, the ability to offer consumers a low-cost, simple method for remote deposit capture will provide an advantage for banks looking to differentiate themselves," said Bob Meara, senior analyst, Celent.