Southwest Corporate connects 100th credit union branch to new Branch Capture service
Branch Capture comes to rescue following Katrina
Plano, TX –In a mere nine months since it began offering the service to credit unions, Southwest Corporate has now connected 100 credit union branches to its Branch Capture service. Those 100 branches belong to 39 credit unions stretching from Florida to New Mexico.
Since the first Branch Capture transmission to Southwest Corporate Federal Credit Union in March, more and more credit unions have reduced courier costs and maximized funds availability by adding the service. Dozens more credit unions are in the pipeline and more than a hundred have inquired if they are candidates for the popular new service.
Why all the interest?
“It’s about saving money and being more efficient,” says Robert Hall, Manager of Southwest Corporate’s Branch Capture Support Team. Hall and the Branch capture team are instrumental in the set up process for adding this new service to credit unions.
Branch capture is a high-tech method of processing checks that a credit union takes in from members for deposit. Items scanned at a credit union’s branch location can transmitted directly to Southwest Corporate. Encoding and batch level balancing is then performed by Southwest Corporate staff.
“Many credit unions are concerned about their bottom line and looking for ways to trim costs.” Hall said. Branch capture’s electronic transmission of check images to Southwest Corporate can eliminate the need for couriers and commercial bank deposits.
“With courier transportation of paper checks for processing, a credit union’s check processing procedure is only as reliable as the courier,” Hall said. When transportation came to a virtual standstill following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, credit unions turned to Southwest Corporate’s Branch Capture program for an effective solution.
When Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore on Monday, August 29th, Wymar Federal Credit Union, located in Southern Louisiana, was spared the devastation. But it soon felt the impact. Transportation ground to a halt. Wymar Federal Credit Union’s depository bank was underwater. The credit union’s members were in need.
“It became imperative that we get up and running as soon as possible,” said Reggie Gremillion, president of Wymar Federal Credit Union.
Branch Capture provided an answer.
The Branch Capture Support Team worked closely with Gremillion to implement the new services as quickly as possible. The support team even managed to provide Gremillion’s credit union with the necessary training in less than a day. With stunning efficiency, Wymar Federal Credit Union was able make its first successful branch capture transmission on Friday, September 2—less than a week after Katrina struck.
Now, several months later, Gremillion calls the Branch Capture product, “absolutely fantastic.”
He adds: “The process is easy and the funds availability is so much better than before. Our funds are deposited at Southwest Corporate and earning a much higher rate of return on a much faster availability schedule. I could never imagine going back to the pre-branch capture days.”
Still other credit unions find other reasons to consider Southwest Corporate’s Branch Capture program. Those include the fact that commercial banks often charge fees for paper items. And then there’s the delay waiting for the deposits to clear. With Branch Capture, the items are transmitted to Southwest Corporate and funds are available faster than with paper check deposits.
For more information about Branch Capture, contact Karen Coble at coblek@swcorp.org or call 214-703-7831.