Big commercial customers at Sterling Savings Bank soon will be able to get up-to-the-minute transaction details on their checking accounts via a package of Internet-based tools. At U.S. Bank, business customers will be able to make deposits electronically at their own premises by scanning the checks they receive from customers rather than carting those checks to a bank branch.


Employers who bank with Washington Trust Bank now can pay their workers with a payroll card that their employees can use at ATMs, rather than having to take their checks to the bank. Wells Fargo Bank has put computers in its branches so customers can sit down in their banks and view the status of their accounts or check on past transactions.


In todays competitive banking world, financial institutions are scrambling to find and implement new technologies to help them attract and retain customers.


We need technology to help our customers meet their business needs, and meet them where, when, how, and with a product they want, says Kade Peterson, a senior vice president at Sterling.


Spokane-based Sterling is testing new technology for what it calls its Corporate Net Banking program, which is designed primarily to meet the needs of larger companies that generate $50 million or more in annual sales, says Peterson.


He says the program is expected to be launched next month, and will provide big commercial banking customers with a host of online services that traditionally have been delivered via e-mail, fax, and courier.


Sterling will charge between $50 and $200 a month for the services, depending on which ones a customer chooses.


Peterson says the idea is to take a collection of higher-end banking services that big companies need and consolidate them in a way thats accessible from a desktop computer.


One such service, called balance reporting, will provide the customer with both summarized and detailed transaction information within one minute after a transaction is recorded at a branch office, he says.


Another will enable customers to get a 90-day transaction history instantly online, and even to export such information into an accounting package quickly so it can be analyzed.


Customers also will be able to use their own computers to make wire transfers instantly, and to receive electronic confirmations of the transfers within seconds, he says.


Among the systems other tools is a fraud reduction mechanism, in which Sterlings computers will screen every check drawn on a corporate customers account to ensure its valid.


If a computer suspects the check was written fraudulently, funds wont be drawn from the customers account, and instead the check will be returned to the entity that accepted it, Peterson says.


Customers also will be able to use the online system to stop payment on a check they have issued, to transfer money between business accounts, and to access fund-distribution accounts electronically at any time.


Peterson says customers will be able to choose which pieces of the system they need, rather than pay for the entire package of tools.


On-site deposits


One technological U.S. Bank program of interest to business customers is the banks on-site electronic deposit service, says Loretta Bombino, a Spokane-based vice president with the big national bank.


With that program, U.S. Bank sells scanning equipment to business and government customers that enables those customers to make deposits into their U.S. Bank accounts without leaving their own business premises.


Rather than physically taking a deposit to a bank branch, a customer who uses the on-site deposit technology can simply pass the checks it plans to deposit through a scanner and the amounts of the checks will be transferred electronically into the businesss checking account from the accounts of the people or businesses that wrote the checks.


This is part of a process called remote deposit, says Christian Feinauer, U.S. Banks Salt Lake City-based senior vice president of treasury management sales. Were trying to capture as much of the market as possible created by Check 21 legislation. Its really a hot item.


Check 21 allows institutions to exchange customer checks electronically through digital imaging.


One benefit of the on-site deposit system is that a customer could choose to do business with a bank that isnt located nearby, says Feinauer.


Another is that customers dont have to dispatch an employee to make deposits outside the building, he says.


The scanners needed for the process sell for anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars to several thousand dollars, depending on the needed capacity, Feinauer says.


Mid-range scanners run as many as 1,000 checks a day, he says.


A second relatively new program at U.S. Bank is a point-of-sale (POS) electronic check service, which allows businessesusing scanners they buy from the bankto instantly deposit into their own accounts customer checks, thanks to electronic-fund-transfer transactions at the point of the sale. As with a debit-card transaction, the amount of the check is placed into the businesss account immediately.


The machine reads the check immediately, the clerk gives the check back to the customer, and the whole process cuts down on bad checks, Bombino says. She adds that U.S. Bank guarantees that any check approved by its scanner will be paid by the bank.


The bank claims that POS electronic check service is provided at a fraction of the cost of credit- and debit-card payments.


Paychecks on a card


A program offered by Washington Trust gives businesses the opportunity to pay their employees with employee payroll cards instead of with standard payroll paychecks.


Much like a credit card, the plastic employee payroll card gives the employee payday access to automated teller machines (ATMs), merchants, card-payment systems, and banks up to the dollar amount the business has programmed for that card on the banks Web site, says Ingrid Campbell, a Washington Trust spokeswoman.


The employer must maintain an account with Washington Trust, but the employees dont need a checking account at all, says Amber Albertini, assistant vice president and director of banking at Washington Trust.


Employees are allowed immediate access to their money without having to go to a bank to cash their check, she says, adding that the program is popular with seasonal workers.


Washington Trust also is investing in new voice-over Internet protocol, or VoIP, systems that are intended to make it faster and easier for customers who call the bank to get their questions answered, says Albertini.


With the new phone system, customers will have the option when they reach the banks call center to either speak with a bank employee or be routed to an automated system thats programmed to route the customer quickly to someone in a specific department, such as loans or deposits, who can address their question.


It will be faster and much easier for the customer to use. It wont involve multiple transfers, Albertini says.


A third new technology-driven improvement thats slated to go in at Washington Trust will enable customers to view, via the Internet, an image of the back of a check they have written, for instance to see who endorsed it.


Customers already can view images of the front of a check.


In yet another technological wrinkle, Wells Fargo bank is installing hand-geometry technology in its new downtown Spokane branch for customers who use safety-deposit boxes there. The system will enable customers to get access to their safety-deposit box without the assistance of a bank employee. (See the story on page B11 of our printed issue.)


The bank also has placed computerscalled I-Stationsat each of its branches here that customers can use to access their banking records immediately.


We want informed customers, says Mark Felchlin, manager of Wells Fargos downtown- Spokane branch.


He says the computer stations give customers an up-to-date view of the status of their accounts, including categorized data on checks and spending.