News

Endpoint Exchange, Fiserv, FIs in Check 21 pilot

October 28, 2004

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. - The Endpoint Exchange Network will begin live operations today of a pilot agreement among Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), M&I Marshall & Ilsley Bank, an affiliate of Marshall & Ilsley Corporation (NYSE: MI), and INTRUST Bank, Wichita, Kan.

According to a news release, Endpoint Exchange plans for this initiative to enable its 4,000-plus participants to transmit check images and create substitute checks to settle transactions for checks drawn on non-participating financial institutions.

INTRUST and M&I, both members of The National Clearing House (NCHA), will settle the transactions through NCHA, the nation's largest check settlement organization, taking full advantage of the new Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, which took effect Oct. 28.

Under the pilot, check images captured by INTRUST are routed to the Endpoint Exchange Network for exchange. Checks payable on non-Endpoint Exchange participants are forwarded to Fiserv, which routes them into its national image distribution and substitute-check print network. Fiserv then prints substitute checks and presents them on behalf of M&I Bank. The transactions are then settled by NCHA through Federal Reserve Net Settlement Services.

The Endpoint Exchange Network is working with Fiserv to serve as an image replacement document (IRD) print partner for any Endpoint Exchange Network participant to submit images of any check for clearing. For the INTRUST pilot, Fiserv is printing substitute checks at its Atlanta check-processing facility.

With Check 21, a substitute check, or IRD, is the legal equivalent of an original paper check and may be printed at any point during the collection process. The printed substitute check contains an image of both sides of the original check and must be printed with MICR ink.

"Through participation in the Endpoint Exchange Network and membership in the NCHA, using Fiserv's national footprint for distributed print capability for substitute checks, financial institutions will be able to forward present 100 percent of their transit check volume electronically to reduce float and transportation costs, as INTRUST is doing today," said Mark Craig, general manager of CheckClear LLC, which operates the Endpoint Exchange Network.