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Business Services Industry

MidFirst Bank rolls out new electronic deposit service for

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Dec 22, 2005 by John Dobberstein

The wonder of technology is making life a little easier for businesses like McElroy Manufacturing, where late checks can be deposited without duress and the company's driver can avoid a teeth- grinding, mid-afternoon trip to downtown.

MidFirst Bank announced Wednesday it is the first Oklahoma-based financial institution to offer a remote deposit service called iManage Deposit to business banking customers.

MidFirst partnered with Oklahoma City-based Advanced Financial Solutions to implement the system, which uses the Internet and a special scanner to send electronic images to MidFirst for processing.

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The new service is actually quite popular in the United States and abroad. The software AFS developed is being used in 450 financial institutions nationwide, as well as 15 different countries.

It will make a difference to people like Paula Fenix, an accounts- receivable specialist for McElroy, which specializes in the design and manufacture of polyethylene pipe fusion equipment.

Even if a check arrives after the mid-afternoon daily deposit, she can scan the check and the amount is transmitted to MidFirst immediately, without being held until the next day.

Previously, McElroy's checks had been sent downtown to MidFirst's branch at Fourth Street and Boston Avenue for deposit.

With the holidays, we will have a lot of mail, and it's difficult to get all of it processed, Fenix said Wednesday during a demonstration of the technology for the media.

McElroy typically doesn't process hundreds of checks per day. But the company may have five or 10 high-value checks, said McElroy's chief financial officer, Dawna McElroy Dutton.

For our driver to make it down, it's a 30- to 45-minute drive by the time he picks it up here and wanders down there and wanders back, she said. Whether we have one check or 20, we deposit them every day.

MidFirst's senior vice president in Tulsa, Ed Fariss, said the new technology allows customers quicker availability of funds, and they can track deposits and export information directly to their own accounting software.

The service was made available after the passage of the Check 21 Act, a federal law that enables banks to process electronic copies of checks.

Bank officials said places like retail outlets that process large numbers of checks every day could benefit most from the service, simplifying accounting from multiple locations.

But other types of customers are appearing, including a major church in Oklahoma City that just signed on.

The popularity of the technology took the bank somewhat by surprise.

We think it's one of those things that's sort of cutting-edge, that will help customers save a lot of time and manage their bank business in a lot more efficient manner, Fariss told reporters. We're really happy with what we've heard and seen with the product, and we think it's something a lot of people in Tulsa will migrate to over time.

Stolen financial information is always a concern, but the software has enough firewalls and encryption features to satisfy MidFirst, said Bill Roberts, vice president of cash management services for the Oklahoma City-based bank.

We put it through several tests, Roberts said. We've been in the test phase for a few months to make sure that's all taken care of.

Business Services Industry

MidFirst Bank rolls out new electronic deposit service for

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Dec 22, 2005 by John Dobberstein

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