By Marc Rapport, originally published by Credit Union Times, December 20, 2010

As Check 21 wraps up its first decade, its impact has been considerable, to the point where the Federal Reserve has but one site left for processing [paper] checks…

The Check Clearing Act for the 21st Century “Check 21″ was passed by Congress in October 2003 and took effect a year later.

Then in 2010, remote-deposit capture went mobile, as vendors and financial institutions that saw a market for it hastened to get the service onto BlackBerry, Android and iPhone platforms, further extending to consumers the conveniences that had been reserved for the enterprise itself.

“The cost of handling paper checks is getting so much lower than it used to be that I think we may see a renaissance in their use and in checking accounts,” [Bluepoint CEO Hal] Tilbury said. “They’re also easier to secure against fraud than a debit card.”

“I see equal lines forming to get mobile and home capture solutions and I see teller capture taking over a lot of the back-office work associated with branch capture, but I don’t see checks going away anytime soon.”

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-Credit union cites Bluepoint’s stability, commitment to innovation as primary reasons for expansion–

Vista, Calif. September 1, 2010 E Federal Credit Union, headquartered in Baton Rouge, La., today announced it has renewed its existing contract and expanded its relationship with Bluepoint Solutions by adding the following solutions to its existing technology infrastructure: QwikDeposit Home, member remote deposit capture; ImagePoint Foundation, an image-based, in-house item processing solution and Virtual Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR.) Bluepoint Solutions is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and leading innovator in remote deposit capture (RDC), image-based item processing and enterprise content management software technology for financial institutions.

E Federal Credit Union operates 8 branches, has more than 27,000 members and over $250 million in assets. E Federal is one of the oldest charters in the country and remains committed to serving its growing member base well into the future.

“Before partnering with any technology provider, our team completes a thorough evaluation to ensure the provider is forward-thinking, stable and will be of long-term value to the credit union,” said Keith Cranfield, Executive Vice President of Finance for E Federal Credit Union. “Bluepoint’s team of experienced professionals, combined with its modern product suite, continues to bring tremendous value year over year to both the credit union, and more importantly, to our members. We look forward to the next phase of our partnership and driving even more automation and efficiencies throughout our organization.”

According to a recent Bluepoint survey of credit union executives, 70 percent of credit unions are looking to make a change to their current item processing strategy. E Federal Credit Union is moving its item-processing from a third-party provider to an in-house environment to gain greater control of the process and take advantage of lower costs.

Cranfield explained, “Given the current environment amongst credit unions, we recognized the need to evaluate our current method of processing items. After an extensive evaluation period and a comprehensive comparison of various methods, we are confident that moving our item processing in-house will add greater efficiencies, lower our costs and contribute to the credit union’s long-term success.”

A long-term client of Bluepoint Solutions, E Federal Credit Union also relies on Bluepoint’s FASTdocs for its enterprise content management needs, ImagePoint Teller to capture deposits at the point of presentment, as well as ImagePoint Hub, a central repository that collects checks from multiple presentment points and prepares the items for clearing. E Federal credits much of its success with these solutions to the company-wide adoption of Bluepoint’s best practices approach to document management, including the use of distributed remote deposit capture at all branches and paperless processing across all departments for both internal and external documents.

“As a member of CUNA’s CFO Council, I have the opportunity to share experiences and talk to my peers about technology providers in the industry,” continued Cranfield. “Bluepoint continues to be a highly regarded provider in the credit union space and is often recognized by members of the council for its commitment to innovation and client satisfaction. Specifically, E Federal has gained greater operational efficiencies, reduced costs and overhead and improved our member services since partnering with Bluepoint. Adding Bluepoint’s home capture is yet another example of driving efficiencies, while creating an additional convenience for our members.”

Founder and CEO of Bluepoint Solutions, Hal Tilbury, said, “We are proud of the successes we’ve accomplished alongside the E Federal team. Like Bluepoint, they are committed to using industry best practices to drive down costs and increase efficiencies in every area of the organization. The credit union’s continued commitment to process improvement is perhaps one reason the credit union has such a rich history and is one of the more successful community financial institutions in its market. E Federal is a model credit union in terms of leveraging modern technology solutions to improve member service and advance internal operations.”

Originally appeared in Bank Technology News  |  April 2010 | By John Adams

Allied First Bank’s customers move thousands of miles while they’re at work. To keep its airline pilot-heavy customer base from using larger banks to deposit checks while away from the area, the $160 million-asset bank plans to automate remote check deposits through consumer capture for personal computers. Allied First’s vp of operations, Andy Harden, and Bluepoint’s evp, Dick Drew, explained to Bank Technology News how Allied First will this spring be the first bank to deploy Bluepoint’s Software as a Service consumer capture product. SaaS allows the bank to deploy consumer capture at a cost based on use, with little up front tech expense. With Saas, it is not necessary for the bank to develop an entire system, they can deploy consumer capture at a cost based on use, with little up front tech expense. Bob Meara, a senior analyst at Celent, Ellen Carney, a senior analyst at Forrester, and Nicole Sturgill, a research director for TowerGroup are also quoted. See Bank Technology News for the full story.