Product category:
Printing Companies: General Commercial
News Release from: Tall Security Print | Subject: The Banking Assistant
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 21 December 2005
Software Tackles Growing Cheque Fraud
Problem
With the tills ringing out in the run up to Christmas, fraudsters deterred from targeting credit cards due to the chip and pin revolution may instead return their attention to the traditional cheque.
With the tills ringing out in the run up to Christmas, fraudsters deterred from targeting credit cards due to the chip and pin revolution may instead return their attention to the traditional cheque However, the Tall Group said that it is doing its bit to help its customers tackle cheque fraud by offering software for tracking money transmission and providing systems designed to cope with the increased regulation of payments received and issued
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 4 Nov 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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Tall's latest introduction, believes the company, will change cheque and credit tracking and reconciliation systems.
The Banking Assistant, which is a trademark of Solchar and used under licence by Checkprint, automatically captures the codeline, amounts and the full image of cheques being deposited.
That complies with the legislative requirements for money laundering regulations, and makes reconciliation with banking records quick and straightforward, said Tall.
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A fully addressable image is created, which can sit on a PC, or be networked across the company.
The Banking Assistant system has already been adopted by Certegy, which is currently tracking up to 3,000 cheques per day at its processing centre in Birmingham.
"The system is easy to use and maintain," said Jahanara Begum, financial accountant at Certegy.
"It has allowed us to automate what was once a completely manual, time-consuming and inaccurate process.
The benefits of this are two-fold - the system saves time and also by capturing more information accurately and it reduces manual errors, enabling us to comply more successfully with banking regulations." The system is also used by the Ipswich Building Society, whose finance director, Hugh May, added: "We have found it to be a cost-effective solution to the problems associated with recording disparate and high-volume cheque data." Tall said that it accepts that personal use of cheques, at a peak 15 years ago, is falling year on year.
However, many businesses still stick by the cheque as their favoured payment method with figures from the Association of Payment Clearing Services (APACS) showing that six million cheques went through the banks' clearing systems each working day during 2004.
APACS indicates that forged cheques are on the increase and the potential for money laundering and other criminal activity surrounding cheque payments is making it a bigger challenge for the financial and IT sectors.
"Banks tightly regulate the specification of all cheques printed for clearing through the UK banking system through CPAS - the Cheque Printer Accreditation Scheme.
They go as far as specifying the office printers that are approved for cheque infilling and for those adding the Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) codeline," explained Martin Ruda, managing director of The Tall Group, one of the UK's leading security print companies.
He continued: "However, APACS remains silent on the extent of the audit trail and reconciliation required for cheques issued and generally make no formal demands on corporate clients to record details of cheques received and deposited.
As the Proceeds of Crime Act requires companies to know the source of funds received, it is incumbent on business to find slick, cost-effective and watertight methods of retaining and retrieving such information." The Tall Group, which comprises Checkprint in Hinckley and Tall Security Print in Runcorn, believes it has been at the forefront of providing secure print and software for its customers.
Its work has earned numerous awards, including the Queen's Award for Enterprise in 2005 for its software for cheque handling.
The group provides UK banks and building societies, and 70 per cent of the FTSE top 100 companies, with a range of IT based products, including secure digital print-on-demand software, a stock management and replenishment programme, an e-remittance system for BACS, plus image and codeline capturing software.
The group's Checkprint software and printer system for the digital infilling and MICR codeline application of cheques and other secure documents, has been installed by a range of financial institutions including HFC Bank, Churchill Insurance and SPML.
Integrated with existing financial applications, functions include multi-level pass-wording, remote verification, system and manual signature options and multiple sheet remittances.
Tall's cheque auto-replenishment system is used by Nationwide, Principality and Portman Building Societies as an efficient and secure means to keep all supplies of counter and corporate cheques in stock with no manual ordering or warehouse and distribution requirements, it added.
Said to save time, cost and space, the system immediately flags duplicate cheque issuance and tracks multiple accounts and cheque types simultaneously.
Tall believes it is vital that other financial institutions and businesses invest in systems that enable them to meet the requirements of the fraud prevention and money laundering regulations.
"Instant retrieval of items deposited not only reduces the overhead burden of manual administration but dramatically enhances customer service when urgent item identification is required," explained Martin Ruda.
"Pressure from the regulatory bodies, new legislation and ultimately customers will lead to more and more companies having to ensure they have these systems in place," he added.
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