JPMorgan Treasury Services is to open a remote cheque image capture site in Europe.
The bank says the data centre will allow clients in Emea and Asia to take advantage of the Check 21 Act, and eliminate the need to pay for the physical transportion of cheques to the US for presentment. Additional benefits include reduced risks related to transportation loss, faster identification of fraudulent items, as well as greater efficiencies and eventual reductions in processing costs.
Check 21, which comes into force at the end of October, enables US financial institutions to susbstitute the original paper cheque with a digital image during the clearing cycle.
Lisa Robins, senior vice president and global head of cheque deposit services, JPMorgan Treasury Services says the remote image capture service will be available to international customers in early 2005.
Seperately, the bank has also introduced a new set of outsourced trade finance tools called TradeOPT. Covering a range of services, from traditional letters of credit to full-scale back end processing, TradeOPT is designed for customers ranging from regional to multi-country global entities.
Bruce Proctor, senior vice president and global head of trade services, JPMorgan. says the bank is not aiming to compete with its correspondent customers, but is instead focused on partnering with them.
"Through the TradeOPT suite of trade finance solutions, financial institutions can significantly reduce overhead, while maintaining a presence in the ever-competitive global trade business," he says.