Citing customer acquisition and retention as the primary drivers of adoption, these institutions join a rapidly growing segment of community banks expanding Check 21-enabled capabilities to include RDC.

According to the 2007 edition of the Community Bank Competitiveness Survey (conducted last fall by the ABA Banking Journal and the ABA's Community Bankers Council), remote deposit capture is the top spending priority for community banks. Of the survey's respondents, 58 percent have adopted or plan to adopt the technology by the end of 2008. In accordance with this and other industry statistics on increased remote deposit capture implementations, Open Solutions' continues to see an increased interest among community banks in its remote deposit capture solution, ISeDeposit(TM).

"It is no surprise the Federal Reserve is describing remote deposit capture as one of the most important developments the U.S. banking industry has seen in years," said Marcell King, vice president and co-general manager of Open Solutions' Imaged Payment Technologies Group. "The convenience, reduced transportation costs and processing efficiencies alone provide substantial competitive advantages to banks. Coupled with the ability to retain and acquire new customer accounts, remote deposit capture presents an opportunity that every institution should be taking advantage of. While analysts have been predicting a surge in adoption, we've definitely seen an increase in the interest and number of RDC implementations among both our existing and new clients. We are pleased to welcome the most recent additions to our client family."

Users of Open Solutions' ISeDeposit have reported tremendous benefits in terms of geographic expansion without additional expense, extended deposit deadlines, elimination of manual processes, improved collections and reduced costs in terms of processing paper checks. Most recently, PeoplesBank in Holyoke, Mass. ($1.4 billion); United Bank in West Springfield, Mass. ($1 billion); The First National Bank of Litchfield in Litchfield, Conn. ($494 million) and The Community Bank in Brockton, Mass. ($314 million) implemented ISeDeposit. As a result, these banks can now offer their commercial customers the convenience of scanning checks from their business locations and transmitting the data directly to the financial institution for posting and clearing.

"As the provider of the first check imaging solution designed for community financial institutions, Open Solutions continues to provide innovative image-enabled item processing solutions designed to give our clients the highest level of operational success," said Louis Hernandez, Jr., chairman and CEO of Open Solutions. "We understand that not every institution's goals are the same and have therefore designed a customizable, flexible solution that can easily be implemented to gain an almost immediate return. Remote deposit capture continues to gain momentum in the industry and we look forward to working with many more institutions on adding RDC to their overall Check 21 business strategy."