Unisys is to host and manage cheque processing operations at Washington Mutual's financial centre stores under a seven-year business process outsourcing agreement.
US financial services company Washington Mututal says the system will result in fewer errors during cheque-processing and employees will have same-day access to the images which will help prevent fraud.
As part of the agreement, branch image capture devices will be installed in each financial centre store's back office.
Armando Angelbello, senior vice president of Banking and Financial Services Bank Operations, says: "Once the system is fully implemented, Washington Mutual will be able to provide image-based products and services such as access to check images for customers via the Web and CDs for corporate cash management customers."
The devices will be piloted in the first half of 2003 and rolled out into a production environment near year end.
Unisys says it will also create and staff regional processing centres across the US to handle item processing for Washington Mutual.