Bank of America Global Treasury Services (GTS) unit today announced that its global Remote Deposit Service has expanded capabilities into Honduras, the ninth country to be on-line with the service.
Quick to assist international clients in the Check 21 era, Bank of America pioneered global Remote Deposit by transacting in Mexico City, Mexico on day one of Check 21 (October 28, 2004). Remote Deposit allows financial institutions outside the U.S. to electronically capture and transmit U.S. Dollar check deposits using image-based technology and truncate the original checks at the point of capture – all from a desktop.
"With our financial institution clients operating outside the U.S. receiving so many U.S. Dollar checks, they were spending significant time and money preparing cash letters or deposits and arranging for clearing of these items through the United States on a daily basis. We are seeing this client segment embrace our Remote Deposit Service because it is reducing the burden of accepting, processing and transporting U.S. Dollar checks, through a more efficient system that provides faster access to funds," said Karen Healy, Head of International Foreign Exchange and Financial Institutions Product Management for Bank of America.
Bank of America Remote Deposit Services share a common platform inside and outside the U.S., providing a consistent client experience globally. Similar to domestic use, a non-U.S. based client can capture U.S. dollar check images, and then transmit them to the bank for clearing, thereby eliminating transportation expenses and moving checks into the U.S. clearing system as efficiently as possible.
Bank of America Remote Deposit Services are available on a global basis and are currently in place in the U.S., Brazil, Honduras, Chile, Costa Rica, India, Mexico, the Philippines and Trinidad.
"The early global adopters of Remote Deposit are eliminating the transportation of U.S. Dollar check deposits to the United States or in-country banking centers by simply scanning the checks at the earliest point in the collection process with a desktop scanner and software. The flexibility of our offering lets financial institutions take advantage of check truncation through a single electronic deposit file," said Healy.
Other features of Bank of America's Remote Deposit Service include: image quality analysis, automated courtesy amount recognition, digital certificates, secure transmission and automatic log-out.
New Remote Deposit enhancements in 2005 include increased information security that helps protect check information from Internet fraud and Courtesy Amount Recognition – a feature that automatically populates the check amount from the Courtesy Amount Box on the scanned check item.
Leading the Check 21 Payment Transformation
Created to assist global financial institutions and corporations and U.S. multinational companies in realizing the benefits of the Check 21 environment, Bank of America remote capture technology has already exceeded the two billion dollar milestone in terms of value of checks processed.
A leader and advocate of the Check 21 payment transformation, the Bank of America legacy of innovation also includes being the first bank to implement image exchange with the Federal Reserve Bank. Bank of America began sending files to the Fed in November 2004, and will start receiving files from the Fed in the end of August 2005.
In addition, Bank of America actively provides leadership in industry forums to develop the architecture and standards to allow for image exchange, and establish standards for image quality.
"Bank of America is committed to image technology and image exchange, and we will continue to invest in capabilities that enable us to achieve productivity improvements through image based processing. We are continuing to explore product development opportunities that will help clients reap the benefits of these capabilities," said Healy.
Image Cash Letter in Pilot
As part of its payment transformation leadership, Bank of America is now in pilot in preparation for the rollout of its Image Cash Letter service. The Image Cash Letter Service enables clients to capture U.S. dollar denominated check images and electronically send them to the bank as a file of check images. Automated data file acknowledgments are delivered back to the client, to advise on the status of files and adjustments. The bank clears the items as substitute checks or through image exchange.
"By expanding our check transformation offerings with the Image Cash Letter service, we are giving our clients more options and a better way to leverage existing technologies. Bank of America is yet again setting a higher standard in the post-Check 21 environment," concluded Healy.