Cheque Truncation System (CTS) has changed the complete operations of banking and is spreading at the speed of lightening, to achieve new benchmarks. Although currently CTS has been implemented in selected countries, very soon it will cover all banks across the world.
From services point of view, the complete process of cheque clearing includes the following steps :
(1) Setup of cheque collection points (Drop boxes)
(2) Physical Collection of cheques from these points
(3) Scanning and Data Entry of cheques (Digitization)
(4) Uploading scanned cheque image and data into bank’s server
(5) Further processing and transfers
The biggest problem in the above process is “Setup of Collection Points” for physical collection of cheques and bringing it to the digitization centre and that too as per specified SLA or TAT.
As the physical collection includes deployment of adequate manpower with proper transportation facility to maintain SLA and TAT, the cost of physical collection of cheques corresponds to almost 80% of the total cost of services. To eliminate the activity of physical collection of cheques and replace it with automated virtual collection, Newgen proposes to process the cheques at the collection point itself.
Banks can rather deploy a “Customized KIOSK”, which would solve the problem of delay in processing due to physical collection of cheques. The basic component of the KIOSK will be a cheque scanner (entry level) connected to Internet through mobile phone or basic entry level laptops or ipads etc. to enable wireless communication with central server.
This KIOSK will be placed at all drop box locations or ATMs or banks. As usual the customer will drop the cheque in the feeder tray of the cheque scanner at the KIOSK (just like a cheque is dropped in the drop box). After detecting the physical cheque in the feeder, the cheque scanner will automatically start to scan and read the MICR, and after successful acceptance the customer will be able to print a reciept with a miniature image of the cheque on it along with the details of cheque number etc. At the same time, the images scanned by the scanner will be uploaded to the central server for further processing through wireless internet connection. Going further we can install a small touch screen also at this KIOSK to enter account number and amount by the customer himself while depositing the cheque, to speed up the process and bypass the data entry step.
Feature of automatic rejection is already available in the cheque scanner, so if the cheque is not inserted properly or is manipulated, then it will be rejected in the output tray. If inserted properly the cheque will be accepted and collected by the scanner. All types for frauds can be easily handled at this level as these scanners are specifically designed for scanning of cheques with features like UV image and MICR etc. Over and above this, the software working with the scanner takes care of detecting many other errors like overwriting, not signed, mandatory details left empty etc.
One time cost of KIOSK is much less than the recurring cost of physical collection and the most important benefit is that everything is achieved as per promised TAT/SLA, and this setup works 24×7 in all scenarios like rain, storm, traffic jams, manual absence etc.
Newgen has enterprise an level solution to develop low cost “Customized KIOSK” which is much cheaper, robust and can be integrated with any cheque scanner available in the market with the feature of customizable process to suit the varied requirements of different banks.
