As Image Exchange Traffic Climbs, More Banks Clear Image Files

Image-exchange volumes continue to climb at a steady pace, and so does the volume of checks settled through image networks as images rather than as paper substitute checks, new data show. SVPCO's Image Payments Network, which links 15 large financial institutions and is the country's largest image-exchange system, reported Monday its September volume reached 80.2 million items, up 6.6% from August and a 16-fold increase from September 2005. Meanwhile, total image-exchange volume in August amounted to 283.3 million items, up 30% from July and a 10-fold rise from August of last year, according to multinetwork data compiled by the Electronic Check Clearing House Organization (ECCHO). SVPCO reports the Federal Reserve, to which its network maintains a link, accounted for 10% of its traffic, or 8.4 million items, last month. This Fed volume was twice the traffic it accounted for in August and 11 times its volume in July. This increase from the Fed, coupled with rising use of image exchange by banks, has fueled SVPCO's growth. “At this rate of growth, the Image Payments Network is expected to reach 100 million images a month by the end of 2006,” said George Thomas, executive vice president of The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC, SVPCO's parent company, in a statement. At the same time, banks are increasingly clearing electronic check images rather than the substitute checks, or image-replacement documents, authorized by the Check Clearing Act for the 21st Century (Check 21). The number of routing-and-transit (R/T) numbers for paying banks receiving image files in August reached 5,033, up from 2,188 a year earlier and from 2,841 in February. ECCHO estimates this number represents 4,535 institutions, or 27% of all U.S. banks. At the same time, the volume of checks cleared as images files hit 133.7 million, or 47% of all image-exchange volume. A year ago, just 16% of image-exchange traffic cleared at paying banks as images. ECCHO, a bank-owned organization that develops rules for image exchange, derives its numbers from the Fed, SVPCO, and the National Clearing House, which processes settlement for Endpoint Exchange and several other image-exchange systems.