Valley National Bank Streamlines Back Office and Upgrades Customer Service

Valley National Bank, Wayne, N.J., wanted to upgrade its customer service and streamline its back office operation while improving its defense against check fraud.

"We had an old, antiquated system, and we were growing too large for it. It was very labor-intensive and slow," said Wayne Fritsch, Senior Vice-President of Operations for the $6.9 billion financial institution. The old system included signature cards at branches and in the back office, the volume of which was becoming too cumbersome to handle as the bank continued to add accounts through mergers, acquisitions and internal growth. The bank has 125 branches throughout northern New Jersey, and Manhattan, with further growth expected in the future.

Bank officials looked at a couple of different signature verification systems that would enable them to put signatures in an easier-to-handle electronic format. One of the vendors had yet to establish a U.S. presence, and bank officials knew they wanted the quick support that could be provided only by a domestic company, so they chose SQN´s SENTRY: SignatureTM software.

"With SENTRY: Signature, we´re much more productive because we´ve been able to automate the back office," Fritsch said. Rather than spending time looking through signature cards, the back office now uses just a few keystrokes in SENTRY: Signature to quickly access signatures electronically for high dollar amount items, allowing quickly clearing of thousands of items reviewed daily.

An additional benefit is the Signature By Fax module, Fritsch added. Though the capability wasn´t an important factor in choosing the system, bank personnel have found it invaluable in daily operations.

Traditionally, the bank had kept the signature cards at the bank where the account had been opened originally. However, that meant finding signature cards and sending a fax of the signature whenever a signature was questioned at another branch. As the bank continued to grow and add accounts, this process became more time consuming.

Sometimes it took several minutes to find the signature card, the card was misfiled or the fax machine was being used for other purposes, all delaying the time it took to service a customer, Fritsch explained.

SQN worked closely with bank officials to make electronic copies of the signatures from the cards and to add more signatures than were stored with the old system, enabling the bank to keep signature cards on site while making the digital images.

The scalability of SENTRY: Signature has enabled the bank to store signatures not only for checking accounts, as it has always done, but also for deposit and other accounts, Fritsch adds. "SENTRY: Signature is very easy to use."

SENTRY: Signature also fits into the bank´s future plans. The system integrates smoothly with several different teller software programs, many of which the bank is evaluating at this time. Valley National Bank currently uses Miser for its Core Processing system.

Once the bank upgrades its teller software, it plans to start using the PC feature, enabling tellers to call up and compare signatures at the PC, with no need for faxes, according to Fritsch.

About Valley National Bank
Valley National Bancorp is a regional bank holding company headquartered in Wayne, New Jersey. Its principal subsidiary, Valley National Bank, including its Merchants Bank of New York Division, currently operates 125 offices located in 78 communities serving 10 counties throughout northern New Jersey and Manhattan.

About SQN Banking Systems
SQN Banking Systems is the largest provider of Signature Verification and integrated Fraud Detection products for the financial industry. SQN´s SENTRY suite of products provides exception item processing, predictive software that detects check and deposit fraud, batch review, signature verification, signature comparison and safe deposit operations management. SQN supports both client/server and host applications and integrates with most PC-based Teller systems. SQN has over 500 customers and is well positioned to meet the needs of financial institutions of all sizes.

In addition to its headquarters in Rancocas, N.J., SQN has five additional offices in the U.S. and actively markets its products through a network of resellers and dealers.

For more information, visit SQN's Web site at www.sqnbankingsystems.com.

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