Bank of the West has signed an agreement with ACH Direct to bring increased payments solutions to customers of the California-based bank.
To enhance their existing electronic payment offerings within its cash management suite of services, Bank of the West will be utilising ACH Direct services to expand its product line, which will now include multiple payment billing, cheque conversion, remote deposit and verification applications.
A state-of-the-art billing application will be based on ACH Direct's Virtual Terminal product, the most advanced Web-based platform for processing electronic payments available today. BillDirect enables merchants to schedule single or a series of recurring transactions with a few simple keystrokes. It also supports the processing of credit card, debit card and electronic check (ACH/ATM) transactions, which can be processed in real time or scheduled to occur on future dates. There are also re-presentment options, which can be configured to re-attempt or even use a secondary payment method to collect items that are returned unpaid.
Where cheques are processed in a back-office environment, the cheque conversion application will allow customers to convert paper cheques to electronic transactions, increasing collection speed and reducing many of the costs associated with electronic payments processing.
The verification product utilises both local and nationwide databases to validate accounts, identify negative cheque writers and in some cases may verify funds prior to sending transactions into the ACH network, therefore reducing risk for both customers and the bank.
"We're very excited to work with Bank of the West to expand and extend their product offerings," said Jeff Thorness, chief executive officer of ACH Direct. "By combining Bank of the West's core services with ACH Direct's offerings, Bank of the West will be positioned to better serve their existing customers and will have a very powerful competitive edge that will allow them to significantly increase their customer base and market share."
"ACH Direct is a good fit for us, as they have been a longtime customer of Bank of the West, and proven themselves to deliver state-of-the-art products with the high quality of service we require from a vendor. There is no doubt this union will be mutually beneficial," said John Curtis, Bank of the West vice president and senior product manager for electronic payment solutions.
Positioned as one of the top 50 ACH originating institutions in the country, Bank of the West continues to grow in cash management and the payments industry by delivering innovative products.