SVPCO Says 8.8 Million Images Make It No. 1 Private-Sector Network

An image-exchange network controlled by some of the nation's largest banks says volume in the network reached 8.8 million items in November, up 38% over October and nearly 500 times greater than in January, when the system began commercial operation. SVPCO, a unit of New York-based The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC, says the images it moved last month totaled $61 billion in dollar volume, making it the nation's largest private-sector image exchange in both transactions and dollar volume. The Federal Reserve operates an image exchange, and there are two other national private-sector networks. SVPCO also announced it has begun a practice of publicly reporting its monthly volume statistics, starting with its November figures. Nine client banks are now trading images on SVPCO's system, up from two in January. “In November, we saw more institutions present cash letters mid-day, thus eliminating an entire day from the settlement process,” said Susan Long, vice president and head of electronic clearing services at SVPCO, in a statement. “Improved settlement is one of the long-promised benefits of image processing, and we're pleased to see a growing number of institutions reduce risk and expedite clearing through our automated exchange and settlement capabilities.” The nine institutions include: Bank of America Corp., Comerica Bank, Fifth Third Bank, JPMorgan Chase & Co., KeyCorp, National City Corp., UnionBanCal Corp., Wachovia Corp., and Wells Fargo & Co. BofA, JPMorgan Chase, and Wachovia are among the 21 owners of The Clearing House Payments Co. SVPCO's network relies on routing software, called a distributed transfer agent, that allows banks to send and receive check images directly, eliminating the need for a central switch. With image exchange, banks of first deposit send electronic images, rather than the paper originals, to paying banks for settlement in a process that cuts transit-check expense and reduces float by several days. In many cases, receiving banks convert the images back into paper in the form of substitute checks, or print-outs of images, for processing. Substitute checks received the same legal status as the original checks under the Check Clearing for the 21st Century (Check 21) Act, which went into effect almost 14 months ago.