Fusion of ACH and Image
In this article on ACH and image convergence, the author states:
Here’s the idea that has the electronic checking world buzzing: Why not capture an image of a check at its inception, but instead of pushing that image out to destinations that might not be ready to receive it (so-called image exchange), convert it to an ACH electronic check right then and there, and take advantage of that network’s ubiquitous reach? If something goes haywire with the transaction, or the customer needs a copy, then store the image in a commonly accessible archive for retrieval of just those items (called image-on-demand or image-sharing).
Why even create the need for a commonly accessible archive? Instead of image on demand, or image sharing, why not a distributed set of archives (for example maintained by each bank of first deposit - heck, they are image capturing the items anyway) accessible via a common “image syndication” protocol? It could be a lot like RSS and podcasting when you think about it, except the “attachments” are check images instead of mp3’s. I feel I have read about this somewhere…
