Content area
Too often solving one problem creates others. Take Check 21. By allowing check conversion to electronic form the sensible idea was to reduce costs and speed processing. The problem is that with physical checks, image replacement documents, ACH transactions and remote deposit capture all now occurring, there are many more check pathways into the bank, and so many more chances that some of those checks are duplicates. It is, in the words of Michael Manila, director of The Payment Group, a consulting practice, "the perfect storm of opportunity for duplicate postings." One bank that recognized this problem early on was BB&T Bank, which decided in January 2007 it needed to develop technology that could detect these duplicate checks before being processed. Tim Dillow, svp regional operations support manager, says the bank's 3.5 million processed items per day gave it ample financial incentive to head off duplicate checks. Dillow says the bank considered taking on the technology project itself, but quickly realized it needed a technology partner and struck an agreement with Conix.