M&T Bank has taken an ownership stake in SVPCo, the private-sector payments company providing ACH services through its ACH Operator, the Electronic Payments Network (EPN), and check “electronification” services through the Electronic Clearing Service (ECS) to more than 1,000 financial institutions nationwide.
With the addition of M&T, SVPCo participating banks represent more than 59% of the volume of checks cleared in the U.S and 34% of the ACH origination volume. SVPCo says this provides it with the critical mass essential to continue its enhancement of the ACH process and aggressively advance electronic payments, including images as a replacement for paper in the check clearing process.
“This very well-respected regional bank has joined the other 20 SVPCo owner banks in our mission to convert checks to electronic payments as early in the clearing process as possible,” says Hank Farrar, President of SVPCo. “We look forward to adding M&T to our expanding network, and their intellectual capital to our endeavors to create robust private sector payment systems.”
SVPCo offers a variety of products and services including Electronic Clearing Services (ECS), which is the nation’s largest provider of Electronic Check Presentment services, operating 368 exchanges per day, representing $3.4 billion and 4.4 million transactions per day. ECS is rapidly developing an image exchange network to add value to its ECP services. It also includes the Electronic Payments Network (EPN) for ACH, and SafeCHECK for check conversion.
Today, U.S. payments are shifting from paper to electronic, but checks will still be written for the foreseeable future. “As long as customers choose to write checks, we will work as an industry utility to reduce costs and improve the efficiency of the clearing process,” said Mr. Farrar.
“We already use the Electronic Payments Network for ACH services,” said Lin Szenina, Senior Vice President of M&T Bank, “and we’re enthusiastic about electronic check exchange, which serves as a foundation for check truncation by exchanging check images with other banks in the marketplace.”
The Image Exchange utility is an open system where all banks, all sizes, in all locations, can exchange images directly or through others. It will be operational for image forward presentment and electronic returns in first quarter 2004.
SVPCo is owned by 21 of the largest banks in the United Sates, representing over 59% of U.S. commercial bank deposits. SVPCo owner banks are: ABN AMRO, Bank of America, N.A., The Bank of New York, Bank One, N.A., BB&T, Citibank, N.A., Comerica, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, Fleet National Bank, HSBC Bank USA, JPMorgan Chase Bank, KeyBank, Mellon Bank Corporation, M&T Bank, National City Bank, PNC Bank, SunTrust, U.S. Bancorp, Union Bank of California, Wachovia Bank, N.A. and Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
M&T Bank is an American regional bank headquartered
in Western New York. It has over 470 branches throughout New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia and a sizable ATM network of more than 1,000 locations.