Bank of America's Global Treasury Services (GTS) is introducing its image cash letter service which enables customers to use proprietary hardware and software to create a deposit of cheque images to send to the bank for processing.
The bank says the new system, which is part of its remote deposit service, is an alternative to traditional paper cash letters or bank deposits. The service has been piloted with a number of clients in different industries.
The new system enables clients who typically process high cheque volumes to capture images of US dollar denominated cheques drawn on US banks worldwide, then create and electronically send the bank files throughout the day. The bank says it will clear the items as substitute cheques or through image exchange.
Karen Healy, senior vice president responsible for US dollar denominated services at the bank, says the service is appealing to corporate clients as well as domestic and international financial institutions and operating costs may also be significantly reduced by moving from a paper to image processing environment.
"The potential to reduce costs and the risks and delays associated with transporting paper is significant to all our clients," she adds.
Healy says the service should be particularly attractive to clients based outside the US who previously relied on international courier delivery of cheques, which can delay the posting of a deposit by a week or more.