December 11, 2009                                                        

 

 

Southwest Corporate’s Detection System Catches Duplicate Deposits

 

A new computerized detection system—implemented over the last year—has made it possible to figuratively spot the needle in a haystack when sorting through millions upon millions of check images. The new detection capability translates to fewer customer service issues for credit unions. And now, the service has been enhanced to broaden the scope of its searches.

 

The software developed by Southwest Corporate Federal Credit Union prevents duplicate share drafts from mistakenly reaching and debiting credit union member accounts.

 

For the first 11 months of 2009, more than 36,000 duplicate checks were detected and stopped by Southwest Corporate’s duplicate detection software. Ranging from 1,400 to 12,000 monthly, each duplicate item represents a credit union member service issue that was avoided.

 

According to Brad Ganey, Southwest Corporate’s Senior Vice President of Payment Services, duplicate deposits can occur as a result of financial institution procedural error, consumer error – accidental or intentional, or because a financial institution’s item processing technology does not adequately protect against duplicate presentment.

 

“Southwest Corporate’s initial focus was to ensure duplicate detection technology was in place for credit unions’ outgoing deposits,” Ganey said. “As image exchange became more prevalent, we saw a need to protect our member credit unions against duplicate presentment by financial institutions with less sophisticated or no duplicate detection systems. This filter meets that need and also provides a safety mechanism for technology anomalies that occur even with mature systems.”

 

The most recent enhancements now enable Southwest Corporate’s system to search presenting institutions’ files for duplicates on three levels: Has the file been seen before? Have individual items been seen before? Have items dated older than 30 days been seen before? Positive matches on any level are reviewed.

 

If allowed to continue through the system, each duplicate item would post to a member’s account a second time, creating the potential for unwarranted overdrafts – a situation that inconveniences the member, reflects poorly on a credit union’s service image and requires significant employee resources to resolve.

 

While no system can detect every duplicate deposit item, Southwest Corporate has significantly minimized the impact these items have on credit unions and their members, Ganey said.

 

For more information on the benefits of Southwest Corporate share draft services, contact an Account Executive at 800.442.5763.