News

Carreker offers Check 21 Readiness Program

August 4, 2003

DALLAS -- Carreker Corporation (Nasdaq: CANI), a provider of consulting and technology solutions for the financial services industry, has introduced a Check 21 Readiness Program for financial institutions and payment processors, complementing the company's imaging and other products related to Check 21.

Check 21 (also known as the Check Truncation Act of 2003) facilitates the exchange of images instead of paper checks by permitting banks to truncate checks and substitute image replacement documents. Among the possible effects of Check 21 are the increased usage of imaging technology at the ATM. (See related story Improving ATM deposits)

Check 21 has passed the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate in different versions; passage of a combined version is expected in the coming months, with the law expected to take effect in 2004. (See related story Passage of Check 21 advances idea of check imaging at ATM)

Carreker's Check 21 Readiness Program, already under way with selected banks, is designed to help clients realize their Check 21-related opportunities and minimize the risks, according to a news release. It includes a two-day, customized, on-site Check 21 Readiness Workshop, with specialized modules for operations, products, customer service, risk management and
business lines.

According to the release, the workshop helps clients come to an understanding of their readiness and identify their areas of greatest risk, competitive opportunity and operational needs.

Carolyn Coughlin, senior vice president, North American Item Processing for Harris Bank, said in the release, "There's no doubt that Check 21 is going to improve the way we do some very important functions. Still, we wanted to use this opportunity to make additional changes that will serve our payments customers well into the future.  Being able to do that quickly and in a cost-effective manner is very important to us."

The program is a service of Carreker's recently organized Global Payments Consulting (GPC) division, which consists of three consulting practices: Payments Strategy and Modeling, Image Technology and Operations Planning (offering the Check 21 Readiness Program) and Fraud Risk and Mitigation.

Nancy Langer, president of GPC, said in the release, "Unlike other industry events organized around this topic, ours is bank-customized, so it reaches deeply into the areas where Check 21 will play out either favorably or unfavorably for the client: product groups and business lines."

According to the release, approximately 60 percent of check images archived today by the top 50 banks in North America are stored by Carreker applications, either at individual banks or in shared archives.

Carreker has an image-enabled back office suite (for exceptions, adjustments and return items, with a research offering in the works) and several image-enabled fraud mitigation applications. The company recently announced the first application in its image quality assurance suite, and is creating an image exchange system compatible with its electronic check presentment solution, CheckLink.

More information about Carreker's Check 21 Readiness Program is available on the company's Web site.