How a Community Bank Uses Remote Deposit Capture to Extend its Footprint

A community bank with a physical footprint of 16 branch locations in the Bayou State and total assets of about $714 million, Lake Charles, La.-based First Federal Bank of Louisiana doesn't see its size as a barrier to providing its clients with the latest technology.

"I feel that first federal bank is on the cutting edge of technology," said Jody Vanover, First Federal's deposit services manager. "We’re always looking for better things whether it’s in house or not as far as security for the bank and security for the customer. We’re always looking for better ways to protect our customers and I think we stay on the cutting edge of technology."

The bank in August deployed remote deposit capture to its corporate clients, and has since gotten eight businesses up and running with the technology. Vanover says the bank plans to promote the service, powered by Benchmark Technology Group's Corporate Capture21 solution, more heavily going forward. She says offering a corporate remote deposit capture service is beneficial to her bank because it is an efficient way to serve clients outside the bank's physical footprint.

It also helps with customer retention in that it's a cost saving measure the bank can pass on to the customer, Vanover adds.

"It was simply a case where it made sense for us to implement this type of service to our customer," she says.

First Federal deployed its first merchant remote deposit capture system in 2008, using a solution from a different vendor. But, Vanover says, that original solution wasn't user-friendly enough, and was more complicated to deploy. Vanover says the new solution improves on ease of use, and also adds multifactor security, something the bank required of its corporate RDC technology. Other features of the new software was its customizability on the bank's end and the systems ability to automate the process of converting check images into X9-formatted files.

"It’s very easy for us to handle the transactions," Vanover adds.

And, she says, it's easy to train staff and customers on the system. "Normally the implementation takes about 30 minutes," Vanover explains.