Checks ? Here Today, Here Tomorrow Visa and ... - The Green Sheet

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• Offer strong leadership for the direction of the payments
industry.
• Act as a primary advocacy group on rules that govern
evolving check and ACH transactions, both regionally and
nationally.
• Train and educate a new generation of ACH leaders and
personnel.
• Serve as the trusted arbiter and contact point for ACH
discrepancies for member institutions.
These considerations were the basis for the merger
between the Western Payments Alliance and the Bankers
Clearing House in December 2000. The boards of both
organizations fundamentally understood the strategic shift
away from separate processing of paper and electronics
and toward a single, integrated payments system.
Forward-looking institutions will seek to combine operations
to accelerate the conversion of checks into electronic
debits.
Other institutions will move more slowly. The Western
Payments Alliance and Bankers Clearing House were natural
partners by virtue of their successful track records
working with financial institutions and in processing and
settling large volumes of payments efficiently and inexpensively.
The new Western Payments Alliance looks forward
to serving both the early adopters of the new electronic
payments and those who embrace change more
slowly.
Since the merger was completed, these member benefits
are starting to have a real impact. WesPay has succeeded
in carefully merging its operations while continuing to
deliver world-class service to its members. WesPay today
remains focused on its core competencies of collecting,
transporting, processing and settling checks and providing
high-quality education and information on new payment
initiatives.
At the same time, the synergy of the combined organization
already has created added value for members.
Innovations such as FraudBAN, which will provide a
nationwide, online clearinghouse to prevent check fraud,
are among the first technology solutions from the merged
organization to seamlessly integrate paper checks and
electronic payments.
Additionally, the combined organization is exerting more
influence and leadership in such national forums as
NACHA and its Electronic Check Council by leveraging
the depth and experience of its combined volunteer leadership
and professional management team.
In fact, WesPay expects to announce a special initiative