AFP in Boston had remarkably good weather, a world series event, a potential superbowl football team and the usual Treasury goodies (but with new twists.) All of the remote deposit capture vendors were there, showing how big that market really is. Currently, there are some significant technical differences developing in the smaller remote capture vendors, which should prove interesting in the next year.

We at AP technology were excited that two of our partners, Fundtech and Weiland Financial, were reselling our Transporter service. Hopefully, all Treasury professionals will get more opportunities to use this unattended automated file transfer application in the future.

The elephant in the room that nobody really acknowledged was the use of a smart phone to manage Treasury functions, although there were a lot of small asides on security for the phone and its contents. AP Technology demonstrated Keystone Authentication with Crontos technology - phone security that can interpret and respond to authentication queries. It is like using your phone as a “token” device. The next AFP should have the major banks and vendors with a secure phone option in the product mix.

Non-token solutions should be given a fair opportunity to show their worth; tokens were rushed into production to meet the Federal guidelines and the cost of servicing was overlooked. Significant savings and improved customer relations are available using alternatives like the AP Technology Keystone Authentication solution.

The surprise of the AFP, for us, was the keen interest from banks in remote, secure check printing as they delve into providing a check initiative following Check 21. This includes Cashier’s Checks for internal use, the real estate transaction closing industry, and business checks for small accounting firms, remote locations and chains of hotels, etc., where checks are needed quickly. Having produced MICR printing systems and corresponding controls since 1989, we are guiding several institutions through the various alternatives and controls available. (There was one comment that noted: because we can place a remote capture device in a business office, why not add a secure MICR printer to go with Wires and ACH?)

Finally, there was common interest in fraud, specifically because it continues to grow. Smaller financial institutions are now being hit and larger banks have begun to implement Positive Pay more hastily. Almost all of our partners that use SecurePay report one or more unsuccessful fraud attempts resulting from this implementation - so the bad guys are still out there.

All the best,

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