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Cash Management to Your Service Line

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Would you like to offer a service that will help your corporate customers better run their businesses? Are you looking for something to set your institution apart from your competitor down the street?

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, the Federal Reserve can help. We offer a service called image-enhanced corporate cash management that will help your business customers reduce storage requirements, improve their item retrieval process and make it easier to reconcile their monthly statements.

How does this service work? At the end of your customer's statement cycle, you send their checks to the Fed. We capture an image of each item and store it on a CD-ROM. Your customer then will receive a CD that contains digitized images of their checks, which they can view on any PC with 16 megabytes of RAM, a Windows® operating system and a CD-ROM reader.

Perfect for Companies That Receive Many Checks

Image-enhanced cash management is very useful for any customer, especially those that receive large statements. These organizations devote substantial resources to storing, filing and retrieving their checks, which can be time-consuming and expensive.

Using image-enhanced cash management makes these tasks easier. One of the biggest advantages is the storage space it saves. One CD holds between 15,000 and 20,000 check images.

It takes between six to nine standard check boxes to retain this many items! Companies that use outside storage facilities to store their checks can save money by not having to pay for this service.

Image-enhanced cash management also makes it easier for your customers to retrieve items. Instead of rummaging through boxes of checks or reels of microfilm to find an item, they simply look it up on a CD. All CDs come with customized labels that make it easier for companies to identify the contents. This is a much quicker way to locate items and can save your customers hours.

Finally, companies will have an easier time reconciling their bank statements. Because check information is stored electronically, they can easily manipulate the data to meet their needs.

For example, if your account statement lists items in order by check number, items can be arranged in this manner. This is much quicker and easier for companies than sorting checks by hand.

Many Benefits for Your Institution

Image-enhanced cash management is more than just a great service for your customers--it is helpful at your organization too. It can provide you with another source of revenue. By pricing your cash management service higher than the low fees the Fed charges, you can make a profit.

You also can strengthen your customer relationships. By offering services that improve your customer's business, you earn their trust and make them more likely to try your other services. And the more services a customer uses, the harder it becomes for them to change financial institutions. "Our customers stay with us longer if they use several of our services," says Brian Weide, cash management officer at Citizens Bank and Trust Company in Paducah, Ky.

Offering image-enhanced cash management also shows customers you are a forward-thinking financial institution and a technology leader. "We take a pro-active stance by providing customers with an innovative service before they ask for it," explains Weide. "This shows that we anticipate our customers' needs and remain on the leading edge of technology."

Use It for Your Own Needs

Even if you do not offer image-enhanced cash management to your corporate customers, you still can use it to save storage space and improve the item retrieval process at your institution. Jim Foley, vice president at Omni Bank in Pontoon Beach, Ill., uses the service solely for these reasons.

"We just don't have any storage space, and this service has taken a lot of paper off my shelf," says Foley. "To store six months worth of checks, all I need is two CD-ROMs."

This service also helps Omni Bank respond to customer inquiries faster. "With image-enhanced cash management, we save a tremendous amount of time looking up checks for customers," explains Foley. "I know I can give them what they need in a matter of minutes."

If you are interested in learning more about image-enhanced corporate cash management, contact your local account executive.