US Check Image Volume Continues Rapid Growth

In August, the Image Payments Network, the nation’s leading, private-sector image payments system, reported the following highlights and volume:

• 75.2 million in total monthly items, an increase of 24.8% compared to July 2006
• 3.2 million in daily average items, an increase of 8.5% compared to July 2006
• $206.2 billion in total monthly dollar value, an increase of 22.5% compared to July 2006
• $8.9 billion in daily average dollar value, an increase of 6.5% compared to July 2006
• The peak day of the month was August 28, 2006, when 5.0 million items with a value of $14.2 billion were transmitted
• The Federal Reserve increased its volume to 4 million items from 687,000 in July
• The leading senders of images were Wachovia and Bank of America
• The leading receivers of images were Bank of America and Wachovia

In August 2005, daily average items were 232,000, total monthly items were 5.3 million, daily average dollar volume was $1.9 billion, and monthly dollar volume was $45.3 billion. Historical data can be found at www.svpco.com.

“The Image Payments Network set two new milestones in August, as financial institutions continued to leverage the network to drive efficiency in their payments business,” said George Thomas, Executive Vice President of The Clearing House. “Financial institutions utilizing the Image Payments Network have laid a very strong foundation for migrating from paper to electronic payments and are likely to see increasing benefits as the industry moves toward image exchange as the standard for check processing.”

Susan Long, Senior Vice President of The Clearing House, responsible for SVPCO-Electronic Clearing Services, said: “Participating institutions are ramping up their volume to take advantage of the Image Payments Network’s unique ability to transmit and settle images within a single, integrated system that is connected to the Federal Reserve. We’re particularly pleased with the growth in volume from the Federal Reserve, which significantly increased the number of items sent through the network in August.”

Through August, the fifteen institutions participating in the Image Payments Network were Bank of America, BB&T Comerica Bank, Fifth Third Bank, HSBC Bank, Huntington National Bank, JPMorgan Chase Bank, KeyBank, LaSalle Bank, M&T Bank, National City Bank, PNC 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

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 directly between participants. The network enables financial institutions to exchange and settle check images peer-to-peer without a cumbersome central processing system, thus eliminating the expense of transporting physical checks.

The Image Payments Network offers financial institutions a variety of connectivity options. The SVPCO Distributed Traffic Agent (DTA), a solution developed by SVPCO with technology partner VECTORsgi, enables financial institutions with larger volumes to transmit check images directly to each other. The SVPCO Gateway DTA is a cost-effective solution designed for institutions that process less than 100,000 images per day or are interested in gradually ramping up their image processing capabilities. The Image Payments Network can also be accessed through an institution’s correspondent banking relationship or through a third-party processor.

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 financial institutions participating in the Image Payments Network at any time.

For more information about the SVPCO Image Payments Network, contact Susan Goold, Vice President, Products and Services, SVPCO-Electronic Clearing Services, 201.319.5554, susan.goold@svpco.com.