Willimantic-based Savings Institute Bank & Trust Co. is the first bank to use the new check image exchange program offered by Avon-based COCC.

One of Connecticut’s first banks to switch over to image exchange, as allowed by the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, started exchanging check images last week. Willimantic-based Savings Institute Bank & Trust Co. is the first bank to use Avon-based COCC’s new image exchange program.

COCC started exchanging check images with the Federal Reserve Banks on behalf of the Savings Institute on April 26. The bank is depositing all eligible items as images under the Reserve Banks’ FedForward Image Cash Letter Deposit.

The Savings Institute was COCC’s first try at implementing the company’s new Image Exchange Solution.

“This was the flagship,” said Betsy Didan, COCC’s document processing manager.

The Savings Institute has worked with COCC on a number of newly introduced projects, according to Donna Irish, the Savings Institute’s vice president of operations.

“They asked us to be the beta [in the image exchange project],” Irish said.

The Savings Institute had been exploring different ways of implementing image exchange, but decided to go with COCC because of their good relationship, she said.

“We decided to jump on the bandwagon [with image exchange],” Irish said.

COCC and the Savings Institute started meeting about the project late last year, Didan said. Now, the Savings Institute scans all checks collected at its main office and simultaneously transmits the images to COCC. There, they are encoded electronically and assembled into an outgoing image cash letter. When the bank’s main office closes and the images are balanced, they are transmitted to the Federal Reserve Bank for deposit. The Reserve Bank typically receives the file within 10 minutes, according to COCC.

Training has proved to be the most difficult hurdle in implementing the new system, according to Irish, whose sentiments were echoed by Didan.

“I think [the biggest challenge] was really training and getting the branch staff to adjust,” Didan said.

It was important to make sure the staff understood that they are really scanning the item to be sent and that numbers have to be balanced.

“It’s got to be accurate, complete and balanced,” Didan said.

Since the system at the main office has only been up for just over a week, they are still tweaking it, Irish said. But tellers and other bank workers are learning more about it every day.

“Definitely, there are procedural changes happening daily,” Irish said. “We’re right in the midst of that.

“It’s change,” she added. “It’s new.”

‘A Ripple Effect’

It’s hard to tell how much money the Savings Institute could save from image exchange in the long run. In the immediate future, the bank will be able to cut the couriers coming from its main branch in half by transmitting images electronically to COCC.

But because image exchange implementation is still in its early stages, the Federal Reserve Banks are presenting all of the Savings Institute’s outgoing items as substitute checks. As more financial institutions sign up for image receipt, the substitute check volume will decrease and will reduce costs for the Savings Institute. The bank will continue to consider additional image exchange vendors, particularly Endpoint Exchange, as image volume increases, according to COCC.

Much of the cost savings will be evident when other banks – particularly large ones, such as Bank of America – sign up for image receipt, Irish said.

“It’ll be great for us [when they do],” she said. “I think that a lot of banks will be joining us soon.”

It’s not clear how many banks in Connecticut have so far signed up for image exchange, but many seem to be taking a “wait and see” approach, said Lindsay Pinkham, vice president of the Connecticut Bankers Association. A lot of image exchange will be driven by competition in different markets.

“That’ll have a ripple effect,” Pinkham said.

COCC already has two other banks interested in the system, Didan said.

Another benefit for the Savings Institute is use of the images as microfilm replacement. The images make research easier by letting bank staffers search date ranges rather than having to go through microfilm one date at a time, Irish said.

The bank’s next goal is to have image capture devices in its 15 branches by the end of May.

“We will dramatically reduce our courier runs and our balancing tasks by making this change,” Irish said in a prepared statement.

Some savings is already evident, though.

“Day one, we eliminate all holdover, increase next-day availability to virtually 100 percent, and meet the Fed’s earliest cutoff – 8 p.m., regardless of weather or traffic,” Irish said in her statement. “In the near future, we will reduce our per-item costs as electronic receivers of images come on line.”

Before the image exchange came on line, COCC developed a detailed analysis of the Savings Institute’s item processing operation to show the bank what changes needed to be made and where the operational savings would be found. The company reviewed all intelligent clearing options with the bank to ensure the best clearing, availability and pricing options. With that information, COCC compared current and image check processing costs so that the bank could calculate the economic advantages of image exchange. Installation, licensing and per-item operating expenses were included in the analysis.

“The COCC team has done a phenomenal job of identifying procedures, listening to our ideas, and implementing a cost-effective plan,” Irish said in her statement. “We both learned a great deal, and as a result, COCC has a strong product to offer the image processing marketplace.”

COCC covered all the bases when planning the implementation, Didan said.

“We have gone far beyond branch image capture to processes such as image reject repair, adjustments, image quality assurance, reconciliation and settlement,” she said in her statement. “Many more components are required for true end-to-end image processing than most vendors or financial institutions realize. Our clients need to understand exactly how this process affects their workflow and how it will impact their bottom line.”

The Federal Reserve Banks’ implementation team also was pleased with the quality of COCC’s detailed preparations for image exchange.

“We are very happy to add COCC to our family of third-party processors using the FedForward service,” said James McNealy, an account executive at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, in a prepared statement. “We look forward to implementing additional COCC customers throughout New England and the rest of the country.”