Electronic Checks

With the effective date for the Check Clearing for the 21st Century (Check 21) Act only 22 days away, few electronic payments observers doubt that the efficiencies of check imaging and image exchange will benefit banks. A lingering question, though, has been how much it will benefit retailers who accept …

The National Automated Clearing House Association is mulling an idea for a new point-of-sale electronic check product that it hopes might overcome some of the obstacles its existing POS service, called POP, has run into. Tentatively called “back-office conversion,” or BOC, the idea would allow merchants to send all checks …

The National Automated Clearing House Association, Herndon, Va., is preparing to launch a test early next spring of a new electronic transaction type for payments on the Internet. The new payment category would be best suited for payments to so-called spontaneous retailing sites?those operated by hard goods merchants, rather than …

The volume of paper checks processed by the Federal Reserve is falling at a rate of 10% to 11% so far this year and is expected to plunge another 13% to 15% in 2005, according to James M. Lyon, first vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. This …

A network built by New York-based Small Value Payments Co. (SVPCo.) to allow banks to exchange check images has begun operations with exchanges between KeyBank and J.P. Morgan Chase. The network began with volume at a “controlled” level to allow each bank to test operations, according to an announcement from …

Banks are getting set to unveil revamped fleets of ATMs equipped with the latest technology and able to perform a wide range of advanced transaction functions, such as truncation of check deposits. That's according to a new report from Needham, Mass.-based consultancy TowerGroup, which says large banks in the U.S. …

Moneris Solutions U.S. Group, Chicago, has rolled out a check-conversion and check-authorization service for merchants at the point of sale that combines with the processor's credit and debit card product. The company says it is introducing the new offering to round out its arsenal of processing services for merchant clients …

The Federal Reserve Banks announced today they plan to shutter check-processing operations at nine facilities during 2005 and early 2006. The Fed now plans to consolidate check operations in 23 remaining locations. In a statement, the Fed says the decision “respond[s] to the nation's increasing substitution of electronic payments for …

The recent surge in transactions in the category of electronic checks called accounts-receivable conversion (ARC) comes as no surprise to the banks that are playing a major role in moving utilities, insurers, retailers, credit card companies, and other major consumer billers from paper checks to electronic transactions on the automated …

The conversion of paper checks into electronic transactions at lockboxes maintained by utilities, insurers, credit card companies and other major consumer billers is growing at a red-hot pace. The process, known as accounts-receivable conversion (ARC), ballooned almost 800% in the second quarter over the year-ago period and now accounts for …