Viewpointe Owner Banks To Begin Sharing Images Prior to Check 21
VIEWPOINTE’S OWNER BANKS TO BEGIN SHARING CHECK IMAGES BEFORE CHECK 21’S ENACTMENT
Charlotte, N.C., January 27, 2004 – Viewpointe and four of its owner banks including Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB), and SunTrust Banks, Inc. (NYSE: STI) announced today their joint agreement to lead the industry toward check truncation and image exchange by sharing check images instead of shipping check paper for processing before the enactment of The Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, or Check 21, on October 28.
Though many in the industry expect Check 21’s enactment date to pass before most banks are ready for check truncation and image exchange, Viewpointe’s owners are aggressively moving forward with Viewpointe’s image sharing implementation schedule.
“Viewpointe’s owners and customers have long recognized the benefits of image sharing and consider it to be the most efficient, cost-effective model of image exchange,” said John Lettko, Viewpointe’s Chairman and CEO. “Now that we’ve finalized the sharing model with our owners, we’ve established an aggressive timeline for implementation that allows our owner banks to begin sharing images by October. Together, we’re able to move quickly because the infrastructure for image sharing is essentially in place, allowing our owners to leverage a proven solution for the highest quality and the lowest cost.”
Image sharing is Viewpointe’s unique model that takes the benefits of image exchange – lowered processing costs, reduced fraud risk, increased revenue – one step further. Sharing eliminates the need to electronically ship images back and forth, cutting the costs associated with image exchange in half. With image sharing, storage and telecom costs are minimized and disaster recovery is built into the archive so each customer is also a trusted exchange partner in the industry. By committing to sharing images within Viewpointe’s infrastructure, Viewpointe’s owner banks will avoid many of the costs associated with image exchange and more quickly realize the benefits of imaging.
“This was an easy decision for us,” said Tim Sullivan, EVP and CIO at SunTrust. “Sharing among Viewpointe banks enables us to greatly enhance the benefits associated with check truncation. The incremental development costs are insignificant, and we are quickly leading the industry toward image sharing and exchange.”
Adding to the significance of their commitment, Viewpointe’s owners have also agreed to establish quality standards for sharing within Viewpointe. Viewpointe will provide the Image Quality Analysis solution and will act as the monitoring and enforcing agent for the agreed-upon standards. Mr. Lettko commented, “The quality issue has been a major concern in the industry. By establishing, monitoring, and enforcing a quality standard, Viewpointe is actualizing what until now has only been a high-level concept.”
Added Bill Chenevich, Vice Chairman of Technology and Operations at U.S. Bancorp, “We have the opportunity to drive the industry’s adoption of quality standards. By sharing images within Viewpointe and operating under the same standards, we are establishing ourselves as the pioneers of image sharing and exchange.”
Bank of America CIO Tim Arnoult said, “The image sharing solution developed by Viewpointe allows us to quickly share images with other Viewpointe members this year while reducing our image exchange costs and leveraging the Viewpointe infrastructure already in place.”
“As we learned in our image sharing pilot with Bank of America and Viewpointe last year, sharing is the best model of image exchange and the most efficient way to eliminate paper from the check clearing process,” added Thomas J. McGuire, Executive for Enterprise Operating Services at JPMorgan Chase.
To exchange images with financial institutions outside the Viewpointe customer base, Viewpointe’s owners will route through Endpoint Exchange, The Federal Reserve, SVPCo, and other exchanges.
“Our owners and customers joined Viewpointe, sharing in the vision that image sharing is the best model of image exchange,” Mr. Lettko added. “By committing resources and developing a firm agenda, we expect all of our owners and customers to be involved in image sharing in 2004.”
About Viewpointe
Viewpointe is the leading provider of check imaging, archiving, and retrieval services to the Nation’s leading financial institutions. Viewpointe’s customer list includes Bank of America, BB&T, First Tennessee, Fiserv Corporation, FleetBoston Financial Corporation, HSBC Bank USA, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., National City Corporation, SunTrust Bank, U.S. Bancorp, and Zions Bancorporation. The company has offices in Charlotte, Houston, Boulder, New York, Atlanta, and San Francisco. Viewpointe archives and provides access to over 1 billion new check images each month. More information about Viewpointe and its services is available at http://www.viewpointe.com.