The CheckAlt Payment Solutions Blog

The next edition of Meet Our Team Mondays. Here at CheckAlt Payment Solutions, we believe in the principle that people buy from people. Each Monday, we are featuring a different member of our sales team. Stay tuned and meet the whole team!

VP of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships Michael Smith hails from Huntington Beach, CA and has worked for over 10 years in the merchant services payment processing industry. He has a passion to see ISOs and small businesses grow.

Why did you decide to work here? CheckAlt Payment Solutions is a high-energy start-up.

A rule you work by: Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you're doing.

A rule you live by:

1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone, exciting things happen.
2. Focus on what you want to have happen and never give up.
3. Never expect life to be fair. Take things a day at a time and always be moving forward.
4. Don't take yourself too seriously.
5. There's always a reason to smile. Find it.

Find Michael on LinkedIn.

Kiting, rather than referring to the outdoors pastime, refers to an already deposited check being stolen and deposited a second time.

While exhibiting at the Remote Deposit Capture Summit last week in rainy Orlando, one of the recurring themes discussed in panels and around the trade show floor was a risk problem perceived by banks and credit unions: duplicate deposits of checks. Not the accidental "oops, did this get deposited before?" variety, but the intentional fraud caper variety.

To some extent there is an actual risk: but our experience – spanning all the years since the beginning of RDC - has unearthed only one occurrence of an actual, intentional case of fraud! Not surprisingly, we agree with most of the panelists who believe that risk is overstated.

FI's have been conservative about making RDC available to their business customers, which is exactly the right process to follow.

Our contention is that no system, no matter how sophisticated, can prevent a remotely deposited check from being deposited elsewhere by a determined crook. Kiting has probably existed since the beginning of check usage. With the advent of remote deposit capture, the ability to scan and deposit the same checks to multiple bank accounts, or for someone to steal and deposit improperly stored RDC checks elsewhere, is definitely a possibility. But that’s where FI’s and RDC providers need to work together.

• Some RDC providers build "duplicate prevention" routines into their service to avoid scanning and deposit of multiple checks. With CheckAlt RDC we provide the flexibility to program duplicate detection of checks for for 60, 90, 180 days - or whatever. The purpose is to avoid the far more prevalent issue than fraud: human error, i.e., accidental processing of checks.
• Our system also prints on the back of the check: the users can set this text to show "date – processed by RDC" or "Deposited image – do not deposit check".
• True risk avoidance comes in proper training for users. Storing checks is the key to avoiding their "walking away" only to reappear in a deposit elsewhere. We recommend storing them in envelopes sorted by date, and these should be held for 60 days in a locked storage. (That's enough for two statement periods and the checks to be available in case a consumer questions the item.)
• "Know your customer" - that bank mantra – applies as much to remote deposit capture as to opening an account. With the advent of consumer RDC, the old rules still apply.

The next edition of Meet Our Team Mondays. Here at CheckAlt Payment Solutions, we believe in the principle that people buy from people. Each Monday, we are featuring a different member of our sales team. Stay tuned and meet the whole team!

Account Executive Nick Shulman comes from Chicago, IL ("Bears.") with a background in banking, giving him a better understanding of banks' needs to optimize both cost and efficiency from the teller window to the back-office.

Why did you decide to work here? I wanted to be a part of the company that will revolutionize the payments industry, so this is where I want to be.

A rule you work by: Never Give Up!

A rule you live by: Never Give Up!

Find Nick on LinkedIn.

The next edition of Meet Our Team Mondays. Here at CheckAlt Payment Solutions, we believe in the principle that people buy from people. Each Monday, we are featuring a different member of our sales team. Stay tuned and meet the whole team!

Account Executive Elizabeth Kitt is originally from Nebraska. Destined for a job in sales since childhood (selling her parents on buying that new toy), she's worked in pharmaceutical, telecommunications and payment solutions sales for the past seven years.

Why did you decide to work here? I wanted to be a part of this growing company that holds a lot of opportunity.

A rule you work by: Always be proud of what you do, the products you sell and the company you work for.

A rule you live by: Live, laugh and love to the fullest. Life is short. Take chances, and have a sense of humor!

The next edition of Meet Our Team Mondays. Here at CheckAlt Payment Solutions, we believe in the principle that people buy from people. Each Monday, we are featuring a different member of our sales team. Stay tuned and meet the whole team!

Though Marketing Director Greg Imlay's father is fourth-generation Southern Californian, Greg was born in Washington state while his father was in the U.S. Air Force. Greg's background has been in marketing management — from banking to insurance, from credit card payments to check payments. Payments has consumed his life for the past 12 years - and he still loves it!

Why did you decide to work here? There's nothing more infectious than a company with a great product and a determined leader like Shai. When I sat down with the team during interviews and saw what the company had to offer, I knew I wanted to be part of this company.

A rule you work by: Take the high road, take responsibility, and take action.

A rule you live by: Family first.

Find Greg on LinkedIn.

UPDATE: See Greg's interview with The Viral Publicity.