SVPCO Online Adjustments, a secure, web-based application available to any financial institution with Internet access, features new functionality that will significantly reduce the cost of check adjustments - the most expensive part of an institution's check processing operations.

SVPCO Online Adjustments digitizes the entire adjustments process, allowing institutions to expedite the reconciling of exceptions. The platform's use of mandatory fields and its ability to execute real-time exchange of information ensures that complete and accurate information is received, thus enabling the majority of adjustments to settle the same day without documents. SVPCO Online Adjustments also allows institutions to instantly attach digital files containing supporting documentation, instead of waiting for hard copies in transit.

In addition, SVPCO Online Adjustments integrates seamlessly into the case management systems of most financial institutions. The result is that SVPCO Online Adjustments can facilitate batch processing that will clear up most outstanding exceptions through an automatic electronic upload or download - without any costly manual intervention or the need for re-keying information.

For correspondent banks, SVPCO Online Adjustments offers downstream respondents a state-of-the-art online adjustments system without a major investment in infrastructure. Leveraging SVPCO Online Adjustments, correspondent banks can quickly and inexpensively roll out an adjustments platform to respondent or corporate customers. SVPCO Online Adjustments offers a unique feature to correspondent banks that allows for electronic notification when an adjustment is resolved. Electronic notifications shorten the traditional adjustments process, which today relies on printed resolution notices that take days to arrive by mail.

"Adjustments are the most costly items to process and require the most time and labor," said Jerry Milano, Senior Vice President, SVPCO-Check Services. "SVPCO Online Adjustments is the next generation in adjustments processing. Participants make a quantum leap forward by taking days out of the processing cycle and by eliminating redundant entries. SVPCO Online Adjustments also provides an opportunity for correspondent banks to offer a scaleable, cost-effective adjustments platform that requires a minimal investment in technology."

Beginning today, SVPCO Online Adjustments is being rolled out as a production platform to banks on the East Coast and West Coast. More than 225 financial institutions and 100 respondent customers, primarily in the Midwest, currently use SVPCO Online Adjustments.

"We are very satisfied with the performance of SVPCO Online Adjustments," said Estee Dempster, First Vice President, ABN AMRO La Salle Bank of Chicago. "The automation of the adjustment process has significantly improved the way we handle adjustment claims. SVPCO Online Adjustments also improves our customer service in our correspondent business, and as a result, it has helped us attract and retain customers. The automation of adjustments is good for our customers and good for our bottom line."

SVPCO Online Adjustments can be initiated from item processing, research, lockbox, and regional processing centers. The system is entirely Internet-based and does not require installed software. SVPCO-Check Services also makes SVPCO Online Adjustments available to members of other check clearinghouses.

Separately, VECTORsgi, a leading provider of transaction processing solutions and SVPCO, SVPCO-Check Services, the national check processing business of The Clearing House Payments Company, today launched SVPCO Online Adjustments, the next generation in online adjustments and the powerful successor to SVPCO's EDIBANX online adjustments platform.

The SVPCO image exchange network allows financial institutions to exchange image files directly. SVPCO serves as the intermediary where summary information moves allowing for reporting and settlement. The Gateway DTA is ideally suited for lower volume participants such as regional financial institutions and community banks.

The Gateway DTA opens the door for any size financial institution to participate in SVPCO's image exchange network by providing an additional access method. A single Gateway DTA can provide service to multiple financial institutions, which will reduce the cost incurred by a single financial institution. Unlike the DTA, which would be placed inside each of the participating large financial institutions, the Gateway system will be housed and operated by SVPCO. A Gateway customer will send a single file with a series of cash letters, each of which can be routed to a different destination.

"The Gateway DTA allows us to provide an additional access method to the SVPCO Check Image Exchange and is a great resource for those financial institutions that don't have a lot of volume," said Susan Long, senior vice president of SVPCO. "This completes our array of access vehicles and now every financial institution will have an opportunity to be a part of our network. We will work with all financial institutions to determine which access choice is best for them, whether through its direct connection with the DTA, a correspondent bank, the shared Gateway DTA option, a third party aggregator node or the Federal Reserve."

VECTORsgi designed the DTA using an "open system architecture" to allow it to act as a conduit to the network for both small and large financial institutions. "A trademark of our company is the ability to look beyond the initial functionality of a system, architecting for the future," said Sydney Smith Hicks, president and CEO of VECTORsgi. "The Gateway DTA is a natural progression of the DTA technology. We are proud to further our relationship with SVPCO and expect the same level of success in this venture that we are experiencing with the DTA."

The SVPCO network supports the exchange of electronic data and images for forward presentment, return items and IRD printing. SVPCO banks represent 58 percent of U.S. commercial bank deposits and more than 60 percent of the checks in the U.S. This critical mass is essential to aggressively advance electronic images as a replacement for paper in the check clearing process.