The Banking Industry Technology Secretariat (BITS) has endorsed the work being done by the Electronic Check Clearing House Organization (ECCHO) and the Small Value Payments Company (SVPCo) to further the use of Electronic Check Presentment (ECP).
According to Austin Adams, co-chair of the BITS Industry Infrastructure Steering Committee, this type of collaboration is absolutely critical to efforts to move the banking industry into the new world of more cost-effective and efficient electronic payments, a world where our customers and our shareholders will profit. "BITSís goal is that 50% of available checks will be processed with ECP by 2001." (Please review the first quarter 1999 GSQ "Floating Digitally into the 21st Century" for the distinctions between ECP and ECC initiatives.)
SVPCo (Small Value Payment Company) was formed to facilitate a standardized electronic exchange of checks. Until recently, each bank that entered the ECP process needed to make separate agreements with each exchange partner, but now SVPCo has developed the capability to do multilateral clearing and settlements for ECP. A standard set of rules will allow banks to exchange checks with institutions that belong to separate clearinghouses. Earlier this year SVPCo agreed to adopt rules established by ECCHO, further enabling the exchange of checks across clearinghouses.
BITS is a division of The Bankers Roundtable, an organization with a membership base of the largest 125 banks in the country. For more information about BITS, access http://www.bitsinfo.org. ECCHO is a non-profit, national clearinghouse created in 1990 by major U.S. banks as a cooperative venture to implement ECP. For more information access http://www.eccho.org. SVPCo was formed last year by twelve of the largest U.S. banks to facilitate the first standardized nationwide multilateral electronic exchange of checks.
