SALT LAKE CITY – SunCorp President/CEO Eric Kenealy said SunCorp has taken a giant step forward with image exchange- that is transmitting check deposit images from a credit union to the corporate. "While other providers are talking about providing branch image capture, SunCorp is doing it," said Kenealy. The new service enables credit unions to capture images on the front and bank of all checks, including the MICR line data, at the teller line. The scanned images are transferred to a server in each branch and uploaded to one of SunCorp's two item processing centers in either Denver or Salt Lake City. SunCorp recently completed a successful test with Cyprus Credit Union in West Jordan, Utah and testing is also underway at Public Service Credit Union. At Cyprus, teller line images were captured and transmitted to SunCop's Salt Lake City processing facility. Branch capture is expected to be a key factor in automating imaging for Check 21. "For a credit union that has several branches, this can fully automate the deposit process. They don't have to have couriers. They don't have to send the check in. The equipment will image the check and prepare the transmission," said Kenealy. Typically credit unions send millions of checks to SunCorp each month for processing. The corporate processes 200 million items each year. Kenealy said SunCorp is in the process of installing permanent equipment at the two test sites and the service should be live within a matter of weeks. "The main this is the test was successful," said Kenealy, who noted a number of other SunCorp members are in the queue to be image enabled at the branch. In the case of Cyprus, it is using UNISYS equipment and AFS software. "Our product is designed to work with existing imaging equipment. We think in most cases, the credit union will want to purchase equipment through SunCorp. We were able to negotiate volume discounts form vendors." Other benefits for the credit union aside from eliminating couriers, include allowing them a later deposit processing deadline, storage, and fraud research. "We'll store the image so they don't have to have an image archive. If you ever want to do research on deposit items it's there. Combined with deposit check fraud prevention tools, you can get to information even faster on fraudulent activity." As part of its turnkey solution, SunCorp installs the equipment at the credit union and provides on-site training. "Our implementation team consists of IT people, the experts in networking, but also the item processing folks, that have the knowledge of the check side," said Kenealy. Under current law, credit unions still have to submit paper checks to an item processing center. Than all changes on Oct. 28 with the implementation of Check 21. However, SunCorp recommends CUs do take advantage of imaging to at least eliminate the need for microfiliming until the new law takes effect. Still it may not make sense for some CUs to implement a branch capture solution at their credit union because most banks are unable to accept image files. [email protected]