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Monday, January 08, 2007
(The Clearing House)
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New York – Jan. 8, 2007 – SVPCO-Electronic Clearing Services, the electronic check and check image exchange business of The Clearing House Payments Company L.L.C., today reported that the number of check images exchanged in 2006 soared 15-fold compared to 2005, while the dollar value jumped 5-fold year-over-year.
“In 2006, the Image Payments Network played a key role in helping the financial service industry embrace image exchange,” said George Thomas, Executive Vice President of The Clearing House. “In 2007, the network is positioned to have another great year. Annual image volume is likely to exceed 2 billion items and grow to 200 million items a month. The reason is that more institutions will realize the significant efficiencies of sending a digital image rather than the actual paper check. Banks that are waiting to move to image exchange because they view paper clearing as less expensive will face higher prices in 2007 and beyond.”
In December, the Image Payments Network, the nation’s leading, private-sector image payments system, reported the following highlights and volume:
• 6.1 million in daily average items, an increase of 21.8% compared to November 2006 • 122 million in total monthly items, an increase of 16.0% compared to November 2006 • $13.5 billion in daily average dollar value, an increase of 14.3% compared to November 2006 • $270.6 billion in total monthly dollar value, an increase of 8.8% compared to November 2006 • Seventeen banks were participating in the network, in addition to the connection to the Federal Reserve • The peak day of the month was December 18, when 9 million items with a value of $20.4 billion were transmitted • The Federal Reserve’s volume increased 40.8% to 17.7 million images • The leading senders of images were Wachovia and Bank of America • The leading receivers of images were Bank of America and Wachovia
In December 2005, daily average items were 555,446, total monthly items were 11.6 million, daily average dollar volume was $3.4 billion, and monthly dollar volume was $73.4 billion. Historical data can be found at www.svpco.com.
Susan Long, Senior Vice President of The Clearing House, responsible for SVPCO-Electronic Clearing Services, said: “The SVPCO Image Payments Network closed out 2006 setting new item and dollar records, while the Federal Reserve’s volume jumped 40.8 percent. We’re pleased with the progress our partners are making in leveraging the Image Payments Network, and we look forward to adding new institutions in coming months.”
The Image Payments Network offers financial institutions a variety of connectivity options. The SVPCO Distributed Traffic Agent (DTA), a solution developed by SVPCO with 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 with smaller volumes or who 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.
Through December, participating institutions 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, Sterling National Bank, Union Bank of California, U.S. Bank, 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.