Fiserv Inc. says a recent market study shows that banks and credit unions view mobile-deposit capture as a key consumer benefit, and they're looking to it as an extension of remote deposit capture.
 
RDC could be accomplished via mobile phones that are equipped with cameras, allowing consumers to create and send images of checks for deposit. 
 
Fiserv collected its information through an online survey of its clients in October 2008. Approximately 318 customers from 294 banks and credit unions participated in the study. Fiserv also held in-depth focus groups that augmented the research. 
 
According to Fiserv's research, financial institutions believe select market segments would find value in mobile deposit capture and would be willing to pay for the service.
 
Some of the research's highlights:

• One-third of FI respondents see a need to offer mobile-deposit-capture services to their business customers
• All respondents from the focus groups said they would be looking for a vendor that has significant RDC and mobile banking experience 
• 70 percent of respondents agree that their business customers would benefit from having check deposits scanned in the field
• The majority of respondents indicated that small and large businesses that sell products and services at the buyer’s location (such as home-appliance-repair businesses and food-and-beverage distributors with trucks in the field) are primary target markets for mobile-deposit capture
• Nearly all respondents indicated that businesses within those segments would be willing to pay for mobile-deposit-capture services, giving FIs potential revenue

“With consumers today capturing deposits from multiple sources, our goal is to create a universal platform that enables deposits anywhere, anytime," said Teri Carstensen, president of Fiserv's Item Processing and Payment Solutions division.
 
The majority of respondents also indicated that any mobile-banking application would have to include login and logout authorization (FFIEC), 128-bit data encryption on phone, SSL over the air, and Check 21 compliance. Respondents also said they would first consider offering mobile-deposit-capture services to their small- and medium-sized business customers currently not using merchant or corporate capture.
 
“Mobile-scan technology is a natural evolution of remote-deposit capture and a logical way for financial institutions to expand their remote-deposit-capture client base,” said Bob Meara, a senior analyst at Boston-based consultancy Celent. “Financial institutions will likely look to current RDC technology providers to bring to market-targeted solutions like mobile deposit to address high-value market segments.”