The ATMs at Desjardins can be tailored to meet the needs of the financial institution’s individual branches, called “Caisses Desjardins.” Moreover, their flexible design allows for new services to be easily added, such as cheque image capturing and chip card technology.

Every business day in Canada, approximately five million cheques are transported from one financial institution to another. The system is based on legislation that has been in place for more than one hundred years. Under the authority of the Canadian payment association (CPA), Desjardins has teamed up with the other Canadian financial institutions in a cheque imaging initiative to substantially reduce, if not totally eliminate, the need for physical cheque transportation. “The shift to image-based processing of cheques is one of Desjardins key initiatives under review and will not only improve efficiency but also allow introduction of new services that provide faster and more convenient access to cheque images for our customers and thus end the common practice of enclosing check images with customer statements,” says Mérette.

With its unique and intelligent bundle cash and cheque deposit module (CCDM), Wincor Nixdorf allows financial institutions and their customers to move away from envelope cheque deposits to full, “straight-through” electronic check processing. “For financial institutions, cost savings and customer satisfaction are likely to be the major driver of deposit automation in Canada,” says Jürgen Kisters, Sales Director North America at Wincor Nixdorf. “Projects in other countries have shown that customers are embracing the new technology and appreciate the advantages over envelope deposit. One such advantage would be immediate credit to their accounts.”

In the future, Desjardins can upgrade any of the existing full-function Wincor Nixdorf ATMs by exchanging the current envelope deposit module with the CCDM. But new cheque image capture technology is only one of several new services in the pipeline at Desjardins. The bank’s primary goal is to provide customers with the most convenient and secure service possible. “Using advanced and innovative ATM technology,” says Mérette, “is one good way to achieve this goal.”