The ability for a bank’s business customers to digitally process checks from their desktop computer—a feature known as merchant capture—has proven an invaluable innovation for financial institutions and business owners alike. Through merchant capture, a bank’s commercial customers can quickly deposit all their checks into one account, reduce the risk of check fraud and consolidate funds from various locations.
But it’s important to note that not all merchant capture solutions are created equal. Here are the five essential components of a merchant capture solution that you shouldn’t overlook.
1. Risk Monitoring
Your commercial customers—and your institution—must acknowledge check fraud as a serious threat. As with a physical check deposit, the risk of check fraud with merchant capture is a possibility; and while merchant capture does eliminate the risk of carrying and depositing batches of physical checks, your solution should provide additional digital protection from check fraud through customizable risk monitoring and fraud detection.
2. Accessible within Internet Banking
A merchant capture solution that is difficult to access leads to an unsatisfactory experience for your commercial customers. Your merchant capture solution should be accessible from your Internet banking platform so it can function in real time, on an Internet banking system your business customers are already familiar with.
3. Simple Setup
A merchant capture provider should ensure your bank’s staff feels confident and comfortable implementing merchant capture for your commercial customers. Choose a service provider that offers adequate training and setup, so that your bank’s employees can service commercial customers effectively.
4. Multi-Factor Authentication
FFIEC guidelines require your institution to provide multi-factor authentication for commercial customers when using merchant capture. These requirements were put in place to protect the commercial customer’s account from unauthorized access and serve as an essential security benefit for business owners using merchant capture technology.
5. Outsourcing Options
When merchant capture software updates occur, business owners who have technical inquiries will look to their issuing bank to get them back up and running. However, many community banks haven’t the bandwidth to facilitate large influxes of inquiries from their customers all at once. Furthermore, a large technical gap can exist between a bank’s various business customers, which can take a toll on banking employees who have additional duties to complete. Ensure that your merchant capture provider delivers outsourcing options when updates and isolated technical inquiries arise, so your banking staff’s time and energy is not depleted. Some providers may also offer outsourcing of the initial merchant setup process to further assist the bank in rolling out this valuable service
These five elements of merchant capture can ensure that your bank has the tools needed to provide business customers with a truly innovative solution. Merchant capture offerings that include these five functionalities provide commercial customers added conveniences that could play significantly into their decisions to bank (or continue banking) with your institution.
Jimmie Paradee is product manager with CSI’s Document Services Division. In his role, Jimmie is responsible for CSI’s Document Services solutions, as well as the development and advancement of the WebRDC product.