Washington, DC, Nov. 3 – AFP Annual Conference – Digital Check, a leading manufacturer of scanners for the banking industry, announced today that it has secured exclusive or preferred agreements to supply cheque scanners to four of Canada’s five largest financial institutions by assets, with the first deliveries commencing this year. The contracts cover equipment for remote deposit capture (RDC), as well as various teller capture and branch back-counter cheque capture uses at certain banks.
The news signals a strong interest in remote deposit capture technology by financial institutions in Canada, which last year implemented the last phase of legislation to encourage cheque truncation and image-based clearing. Many Canadian banks now offer mobile RDC for consumers, with further variations of the technology soon following. Digital Check also recently launched a new web site, digitalcheckscanners.ca, to serve the Canadian market, including French-speaking regions.
“The adoption of image-based clearing in Canada is a very encouraging sign, not just for the financial institutions there, but for RDC and truncation as it continues to be rolled out in other countries worldwide,” said John Gainer, Digital Check’s executive vice president. “It took several years to realize widespread adoption in the U.S., where the system was still under development as it was being implemented. By contrast, those implementing it now are finding a mature technology that is already somewhat familiar, and so the time to market has been much faster.”
With an estimated 1 billion cheques written annually, Canada remains one of the biggest users of cheques after the United States. Along with the United Kingdom and Brazil, it is one of several large cheque-using nations that has recently added, or is in the process of adding, electronic clearing in an effort to improve its settlement process.
“While overall cheque volume may be declining worldwide, we are finding that those places with significant numbers of them are deeming it worthwhile to automate the settlement process,” said Gainer. “We are excited to play a part in unlocking the full potential of this time- and cost-saving technology in many more places around the globe.”
Digital Check is exhibiting now through Wednesday at the AFP Annual Conference in Washington, DC, at booth #1747.
About Digital Check
Digital Check provides superior check and document scanner products for teller, branch automation, remote deposit capture, and remote lockbox applications. The Northbrook, Illinois-based company was named to Bank Technology News’ “Ten Technology Companies to Watch” for its innovative products, and received the Innovators Award for its affordably priced CheXpress CX30 scanner. Digital Check’s SB, BranchXpress®, TellerScan® and award-winning CheXpress® series of electronic scanners are cost-effective and provide high quality images, MICR accuracy and reliability.
