Silver Lake Bank Uses Integrated Bank Technology’s Integrated Fraud Monitor to Improve Customer Service and Experience

Who:
Silver Lake Bank is a community bank that has been serving the Northeast Kansas area for almost a century. Headquartered in Topeka, Silver Lake Bank provides a full range of services to individuals and businesses, including remote deposit.

Challenge:
According to the American Bankers Association, in 2006 banks lost $271 million from fake checks and $969 million from all types of check-related fraud. In response, Silver Lake Bank sought a solution to address its need to identify and deter fraudulent checks. The bank was seeing a number of duplicate Image Replacement Documents (IRD’s), which creates double posting to accounts as well as checks that did not match the serial sequence of the account holder and questionable signatures. Silver Lake Bank also offers Check 21 services and under the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), the presenting depository bank confirms the check has not been altered and is held liable for any fraudulent check images that are forward presented. To address all of these issues, Silver Lake Bank needed a software application that could both review all of their items regardless of if received from remote deposit capture, forward presentment, in clearings or over the counter, as well as identify those that were in need of further review.

Solution:
Silver Lake Bank selected Integrated Bank Technology’s (IBT) Integrated Fraud Monitor. The bank found that the software vendor offered a number of unique applications that fit its needs and Integrated Fraud Monitor addressed every fraud concern without requiring additional staff to be hired to monitor the software.

Silver Lake Bank became an IBT customer in 2006 when IBT began working with the bank through its preferred partner, Financial Systems & Equipment (FS&E). Silver Lake Bank chose Integrated Fraud Monitor over competing applications because of its ability to monitor all aspects of paper and electronically presented items. Another key factor was the ability to detect when checks fall out of the serial sequence of the account holder.

“Many of the counterfeit checks that we receive have serial numbers that are outside of the customer’s current range, so that feature was exactly what we needed to prevent this type of activity,” Brice Feldt, senior vice president of information technology at Silver Lake Bank, explained. “Also, signature verification is very important because in the past, Silver Lake Bank employees checked all of the signatures manually. We are no longer able to do that due to our size, but Integrated Fraud Monitor does it automatically.”

Integrated Fraud Monitor is a rules-based fraud detection application that allows users to customize it to address the fraudulent concerns of their financial institution while becoming more efficient in detecting and preventing fraud. The Signature Verification module uses signatures that have been identified by the bank as references from already received items. The module then compares the stroke angles, pressure variances and intricacies of each signature and flags those that do not sufficiently match.

Each day, an employee at Silver Lake Bank reviews all of the checks that are flagged by Integrated Fraud Monitor to determine if further review is needed. This has helped the bank to be proactive in protecting its customers from fraud and other errors. In fact, at the bank’s request, one customer submitted a deposit via merchant capture twice to find out if Integrated Fraud Monitor would catch the multiple transactions, and it did.

“So far, most of the fraudulent activity that we have caught resulted from checks that have been presented electronically twice or signatures not matching up with the references,” Christa Manning, assistant vice president at Silver Lake Bank, said. “The application also identifies when two signatures are required, but only one is on the check. All of this information is compiled in reports, and they allow us to then contact the customers and resolve the problem, minimizing any inconveniences and creating a better banking experience for our customers.”

“Recently, I shared our fraud detection efforts with the groups at the local police department that handle forgery, and they were extremely impressed with the sophistication of our process,” Manning added. “We are now using techniques that some larger banks do not employ to protect the financial status of all our customers, regardless of the check amount or how it comes to the bank.”

About Integrated Bank Technology
Cedar Park, Texas-based Integrated Bank Technology (IBT) is a provider of software applications that facilitate electronic exchange in order to manage and protect financial data. IBT has successfully integrated more than 145 individual financial institutions. IBT’s flagship solution, Integrated Bank Environment, provides users a single, centralized database to view and manage all customer relationships. For more information, visit www.ibanktech.net.

About Financial Systems & Equipment
Founded in 1981, Financial Systems & Equipment, Inc. (FS&E) has provided more than 800 financial institutions with the widest choice of hardware and software products. Its technology facilitates business activities through electronic management of image delivery, workflow and regulatory compliance. FS&E is committed to financial institutions and their success and the company continuously provides clients with successful implementations of Integrated Image teller, image check and loan compliance tracking systems. For more information, visit www.FinancialSystems.net.