Jack Henry has announced that its Remote Deposit Capture (RDC) solution continues to set new transaction volume records. The company's RDC solution now supports more than 22,000 merchants and 85,000 merchant locations. "After a record-setting July, during which more than 11,350,000 RDC transactions were processed, volumes continued to increase and another monthly record was set in August with more than 11,685,000 RDC transactions processed. The collective transactions processed during this two-month period represent in excess of $18 billion." READ MORE

In an article titled "Bank Will Allow Customers to Deposit Checks by iPhone", Susan Stellin writes for the New York Times about USAA's plans this week to add an iPhone application that will support remote deposit of checks using the camera built into the iPhone. USAA said it plans to offer the service on other phones later this year.

In an article titled "USAA to launch deposit app", L.A. Lorek writes for MySanAntonio.com about USAA's plans to release a new iPhone application that will allow users to take photos of the front and back of a check and deposit it electronically directly from their iPhone.

Union Bank has announced a next generation remote deposit solution, Remote Deposit Accounts Receivable. According to the bank,"the new software improves customers’ operating efficiency by integrating directly with their accounting software and enabling them to update their account receivables in one process." READ MORE

Fiserv has announced the results of recent market research that quantified the interest among banks and credit unions for mobile deposit capture and gauged their views on potential customer acceptance. Mobile deposit capture is an extension of remote deposit capture (RDC) that enables checks to be deposited anywhere via a mobile phone equipped with a camera to create and send an image of the check. READ MORE

First Data Corp. has a growing collection of white papers in its Thought Leadership Library covering a wide range of payments-related topics. The latest papers include:

• Mobile Account Management: The Mobile Commerce Enabler - by Barry McCarthy, President, Mobile Commerce Solutions
• Innovations in Payments and Decoupled Debit Reshape the Power of Merchant Loyalty Programs - by Timothy Horton, Vice President of Product Management
• Financial Institutions Must Rethink Their Remote Deposit Capture Support Models - by Kathleen Houseman, Vice President, Remote Deposit Capture Solutions, and Mark Nevle, Director, Product Development

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council has issued guidance titled "Risk Management of Remote Deposit Capture" .

This guidance addresses the necessary elements of an RDC risk management process in an electronic environment, focusing on RDC deployed at a customer location. The general principles of RDC risk management discussed here are also applicable to financial institutions’ internal deployment and other forms of electronic deposit delivery systems (e.g., mobile banking and automated clearing house [ACH] check conversions).

EFT Network has announced the FAXTellerPLUS remote deposit capture solution - calling it "a brand new way for businesses, financial institutions even consumers to participate in remote deposit capture by using a standard fax machine with absolutely no hardware equipment or software to purchase or download." READ MORE

Goldleaf Financial Solutions has announced the Sierra Xpedite Retail Remote Deposit solution enabling financial institutions to extend the reach of remote deposit across retail customer segments including consumers, micro businesses and small businesses. According to Goldleaf, "Sierra Xpedite Retail Remote Deposit is a new browser-based client application built using rich user interface technology with optimized workflows to meet the specific needs of small volume depositors. The solution facilitates the cost effective deployment of remote deposit functionality to financial institution retail customer segments through support for commercially available flatbed and multi-function (print, scan, copy, fax) scanning devices many users already have." READ MORE

BankServ has announced that its DepositNow remote deposit service has added the capability for small businesses to be paid directly from emailed invoices. READ MORE

Celent has published a new report titled "State of Remote Deposit Capture 2008: Sprint Becomes a Marathon" noting that "The past year has seen remarkable remote deposit capture solution adoption among midsize banks, community banks, and credit unions. By the end of 2008, two-thirds of all US banks and 40% of all US financial institutions will have adopted RDC."

Mitek Systems has announced it has developed a version of its ImageNet Mobile Deposit application for the Apple iPhone. According to the company, its ImageNet Mobile Deposit is "the first mobile banking software that allows banks to accept paper check deposits from merchants and mobile professionals via camera-equipped mobile phones." READ MORE

Heartland Payment Systems has announced it has integrated alphanumeric remittance ID tagging into its remote deposit capture solution – making it even easier for businesses to efficiently handle check payments. READ MORE

Christina Rexrode writes for the Charlotte Observer about the benefits of remote deposit capture to both businesses and consumers. But she notes that some large banks have no plans for introducing the service for consumers.

We mentioned earlier this week that Forte Financial's Erin McCune was in Las Vegas this week - not for the ETA Expo but for the TAWPI Payments in Transition Conference. TAWPI = The Association for Work Process Improvements - "a professional membership association dedicated to providing education, advocacy and networking opportunities for practitioners and technology and service providers in payments automation, distributed capture, and imaging & forms processing."

Erin's done a superb job of blogging her notes from the conference sessions - and the association has done a great job as well of providing downloadable copies of the conference presentations!

Celent has published a new report, 'Do Banks Want Customers in Their Branches?' that examines the results of a web-based survey conducted among 157 financial institutions in December 2007. Among them, 56% of respondents offer RDC and another 9% are in pilot with the product. US financial institutions have invested heavily to grow their geographic branch footprints while concurrently investing in self-service technology to keep customers out of those same branches. Paradox or strategy?

Jack Henry & Associates has announced that its Remote Deposit Capture solution has now been selected by 720 financial institutions. According to the company, the RDS solution, which enables commercial customers to scan, submit, and deposit checks electronically without leaving their place of business, has been implemented in 622 of these institutions and by approximately 11,000 merchants.

In an post titled "Scanning Your Money to the Bank", Saul Hansell of the New York Times comments on Fiserv's announcement earlier this week of remote deposits from home using scanners.

CheckFree (now part of Fiserv) has announced a new remote deposit capture product that allows retail customers to electronically scan and deposit checks from any location with a PC, a scanner and an Internet connection. According to CheckFree, "it provides simple, easy-to-use functionality for the consumer without compromising the security, fraud identification or processing quality required by financial institutions."

Mitek Systems has announced ImageNet Mobile Deposit, calling it "the first mobile banking software that allow banks to accept paper check deposits and bill payments via camera-equipped mobile phones." Mitek will demonstrate ImageNet Mobile Deposit in booth #225 at the BAI-TransPay show beginning February 5, 2008 in Dallas at the Gaylord Grapevine Resort.

Heartland Payment Systems has launched Heartland Express Funds, a bank-neutral remote deposit capture system. "Express Funds allows businesses to electronically deposit checks into bank accounts without physically transporting them to the bank – regardless of which bank or banks the business uses. Eliminating floats and holds, funds are available within 24 hours, and, in many cases, by the next-business morning."

Celent has announced a new report titled "Best Practices in RDC: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Deployers" - saying that "differences among banks are stark, with highly effective deployers enjoying a hundred-fold advantage in the number of RDC clients deployed."

Purepay, a $100 million buyout fund focused on payments, banking and the financial supply chain, announced today that it has acquired Creditron, a Toronto-based remittance software provider focused primarily on middle market commercial customers in the U.S. and Canada. Creditron's existing management team will continue to direct the company on a day-to-day basis.

Forrester's Mary Pilecki has published a new report titled "Coming Soon: Remote Deposit Capture For Consumers?" "With check writing quickly dwindling as a payments instrument, RDC for consumers might not have time to evolve into readiness for mass adoption, in which case it is likely to be a bridge technology relevant for a maximum of 10 years."

Swift Financial , M&I Bank and Metavante Corporation have announced agreements facilitating a new business venture that will offer loan and deposit products to small businesses nationwide.

NetDeposit has announced "it has been awarded two new patents, Nos. 7,181,430 and 7,216,106, from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for the processes and technologies involved in remote electronic presentment of all types of checks. The patents cover NetDeposit's array of software products and services, which enable electronic check presentment and payment."

Citibank has announced a new electronic deposit service for its commercial business clients, Citibank Remote Check Deposit, that allows them to deposit checks into their bank accounts without taking them to a branch or mailing in the items.

Celent has published a new report titled "State of Remote Deposit Capture: Entering the Mainstream" saying that , among financial institutions, RDC adoption has been astonishing—even faster than the Internet banking gold rush. In just two years, nearly a third of all US banks have adopted RDC solutions. Over 2,900 financial institutions have implemented (or are implementing) RDC through March 2007, corresponding to some 112,000 scanners. Based on aggregate vendor activity, Celent expects over 4,000 institutions will have solutions deploying nearly 250,000 devices by year end 2007.

Péralte C. Paul writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about remote deposit capture. The article includes a nifty graphic explaining the process.

Glen Fest writes for Bank Technology News about how remote deposit capture has taken off, growing from novelty a year or two ago to essentially a necessity for banks to offer today. Fest says that "like the ATM technology launch of the 1970s, bank pros are experiencing growing pains as well as surprise benefits in the transformative technology, as they cobble together a roadmap for best practices and standardization."