SVPCO-Check Services, the national cheque processing business of The Clearing House Payments Company in the US, has launched SVPCO Online Adjustments, to supplement its EDIBANX online adjustments platform.
SVPCO Online Adjustments, a secure, web-based application available to any financial institution with Internet access, features new functionality that The Clearing House says will significantly reduce the cost of cheque adjustments – the most expensive part of an institution’s cheque processing operations.
The Clearing House says SVPCO Online Adjustments digitizes the entire adjustments process, allowing institutions to expedite the reconciling of exceptions. The platform’s use of mandatory fields and its ability to execute real-time exchange of information ensures that complete and accurate information is received, thus enabling the majority of adjustments to settle the same day without documents. SVPCO Online Adjustments also allows institutions to instantly attach digital files containing supporting documentation, instead of waiting for hard copies in transit.
In addition, SVPCO Online Adjustments integrates seamlessly into the case management systems of most financial institutions. The result is that SVPCO Online Adjustments can facilitate batch processing that will clear up most outstanding exceptions through an automatic electronic upload or download – without any costly manual intervention or the need for re-keying information.
For correspondent banks, SVPCO Online Adjustments offers downstream respondents a state-of-the-art online adjustments system without a major investment in infrastructure. Leveraging SVPCO Online Adjustments, correspondent banks can quickly and inexpensively roll out an adjustments platform to respondent or corporate customers. SVPCO Online Adjustments offers a unique feature to correspondent banks that allows for electronic notification when an adjustment is resolved. Electronic notifications shorten the traditional adjustments process, which today relies on printed resolution notices that take days to arrive by mail.
“Adjustments are the most costly items to process and require the most time and labour,” says Jerry Milano, Senior Vice President, SVPCO-Check Services. “SVPCO Online Adjustments is the next generation in adjustments processing. Participants make a quantum leap forward by taking days out of the processing cycle and by eliminating redundant entries. SVPCO Online Adjustments also provides an opportunity for correspondent banks to offer a scaleable, cost-effective adjustments platform that requires a minimal investment in technology.”
SVPCO Online Adjustments is being rolled out as a production platform to banks on the East Coast and West Coast. More than 225 financial institutions and 100 respondent customers, primarily in the Midwest, currently use SVPCO Online Adjustments.
“We are very satisfied with the performance of SVPCO Online Adjustments,” says Estee Dempster, First Vice President, ABN AMRO La Salle Bank of Chicago. “The automation of the adjustment process has significantly improved the way we handle adjustment claims. SVPCO Online Adjustments also improves our customer service in our correspondent business, and as a result, it has helped us attract and retain customers. The automation of adjustments is good for our customers and good for our bottom line.”
SVPCO Online Adjustments can be initiated from item processing, research, lockbox, and regional processing centers. The system is entirely Internet-based and does not require installed software. SVPCO-Check Services also makes SVPCO Online Adjustments available to members of other check clearinghouses.