The biggest risk facing financial institutions in remote deposit capture may be in losing customers if they fail to offer the product, concludes the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta following a year-long examination of the technology.
Writing on the Atlanta Fed's Portals and Rails blog, payments risk specialist Douglas King, says the watchdog has seen little evidence of a rise in deposit fraud as more banks roll out the service to customers.
Rather, the Fed finds ample evidence that the product is becoming mainstream through the mobile channel, with eight out of the top ten largest depository institutions in the US now offering remote deposit capabilities.
Despite the positives, King says banks should still be wary of the potential risks by enforcing daily and weekly volume limits, tightening up front and back-end controls, and carefully pre-selecting customers based on the lenght and depth of their relationship with the institution.
"To date, it appears that those financial institutions offering the product are successfully controlling their risks," concludes King. "As this product begins to become commoditised, perhaps the biggest risk to financial institutions may be losing customers if they don't offer the product."