Check Image Exchange Volume Surges In March

The Image Payments Network is the nation’s leading, private-sector image payments system, according to publicly available information. For March, SVPCO reported the following data for the Image Payments Network:

• 1.2 million in daily average items, an increase of 24.2% compared to February 2006
• 29.2 million in total monthly items, an increase of 50.3% compared to February 2006
• The peak day of the month was March 27, when 2.2 million items were transmitted
• $4.6 billion in daily average dollar value, an increase of 19% compared to February 2006
• $107 billion in total monthly dollar value, an increase of 44% compared to February 2006

Twelve banks were exchanging images, in addition to significant volume being exchanged through the network’s connection to the Federal Reserve.

In March 2005, daily average items were 32,000, total monthly items were 677,000, daily average volume was $6.1 billion and monthly dollar volume was $291 million. Historical data can be found at www.svpco.com.

“The fact that the number of daily items in the first quarter of 2006 significantly exceeded the total for all of 2005 indicates the strength with which financial institutions are embracing the Image Payments Network,” said George Thomas, Executive Vice President of The Clearing House. “We expect the current growth rates to continue and anticipate the total number of check images to surpass 60 million a month by the end of 2006.”

Susan Long, Senior Vice President of The Clearing House, responsible for SVPCO-Electronic Clearing Services said: “Each month, the Image Payments Network continues to set new records and significant volume increases because of the efficiency and reliability of processing images in a single, secure image payments network. The faster that institutions adopt image exchange, the sooner they will realize the benefits of an all-electronic environment for processing checks. SVPCO can help institutions of all sizes become image-enabled and participate in the nation’s leading image payments system.”

The Image Payments Network is a single, end-to-end system that provides unparalleled control, security and processing efficiency for transmitting and settling check images and other data directly between participants in the industry. The network enables financial institutions to exchange and settle check images peer-to-peer, without a cumbersome central processing system, thereby eliminating the expense of transporting physical checks.

Through March, institutions participating in the Image Payments Network were Bank of America, Comerica Bank, Federal Reserve, Fifth Third, HSBC Bank, JPMorgan Chase Bank, KeyBank, LaSalle Bank, M&T Bank, National City Bank, Union Bank of California, Wachovia Bank, and Wells Fargo Bank. Through its relationship with the Federal Reserve, the Image Payments Network can reach more than 10,000 endpoints and help financial institutions of all sizes take advantage of image exchange.

How the Image Payments Network works

Image exchanges and settlement are conducted through SVPCO’s Distributed Traffic Agent (DTA), a solution developed by SVPCO with VECTORsgi, one of its strategic technology partners. The DTA enables financial institutions to transmit check images directly to each other cost-effectively and without cumbersome centralized data processing. The DTA works in conjunction with existing item-processing systems to link institutions into the network and enables institutions to directly exchange payloads of electronic images.

All financial institutions that exchange images directly with each other via the Image Payments Network utilize the automated settlement function. Automated settlement provides real-time net and bilateral settlement position reporting and eliminates the manual intervention required with other settlement arrangements. Financial institutions can see their net debit or credit position online and view their position with all of the institutions participating in the Image Payments Network at any time.