Payment Services
Image Survivable Features (ISFs)
Patented cheque fraud prevention solutions. Award winning cheque printing software. Cheque bureau services
Cheque imaging adds new dimension to the battle against cheque fraud
The Image Clearing System (ICS) introduced in 2019 transformed cheque and credit processing by allowing the use of digital images of cheques (and bank giros) to be exchanged between UK banks and building societies for clearing and settlement.
Aimed at replacing the paper-based clearing system, the ICS now offers bank customers more choice in how they pay cheques into their accounts. More importantly, the cheque clearing process is quicker to offer the recipient money into their account the next working weekday (excluding Bank Holidays). Cheques paid into accounts at a Post Office will typically take at least an extra day to clear due to the cheque being sent to the customer’s bank to be entered into the ICS.
Cheque users can still write cheques, give them to the recipient and continue to pay in using traditional methods.
The change in the clearing process has meant that paper documents are no longer passed through the clearing system and operators only have the digital image to gauge whether the document is genuine or not. This has led to the introduction of Image Survivable Features (ISFs) on the face of the cheque.
In the secure document world, an “image survivable feature”, or ISF, is exactly what it says: Any mark, printed or otherwise, on a piece of paper that survives the process of being scanned or imaged, so that it remains legible, and visible, on the image in digital format.
The addition of Image Survivable Features (ISF’s) onto the face of a cheque can greatly help with fraud prevention and ISF’s are becoming more readily available. Such features enable the cheque data to be captured and encrypted within a unique coded number (UCN) or barcode (UCN Plus®) that can be applied to the original paper cheque, thereby ensuring the validation of the item.
However, it should be noted that even the ISFs, applied to cheques at time of print, such as the UCN, can be fraudulently altered by those who are determined and skilled enough.
The UCN Plus is applied to a cheque at the time of infilling and contains more of the cheque data in an encrypted Quick response (QR) code printed on the face of the cheque making it a more secure fraud prevention tool.
Key challenges of cheque fraud prevention
Time and cost
Increased demands on internal resource and expenditure to produce or deposit cheque payments.
Investment
Hard to justify investment in fraud prevention tools for a declining payment method.
Compliance
Ensuring cheques meet current standards and include bank-mandated ISFs.
Customer experience
Changing attitudes to cheques and adoption of other digital payment methods
Technology
Image clearing methods introduce new fraud through scanning technology
Fraud
Frontline staff/branch tellers do not have sufficient training to detect cheque frauds
Our capabilities
Adding image survivable features (ISFs) to cheques
Our cheque production experts can guide you through your fraud protection options.
The cheque remains one of the safest forms of payment accounting for less than one percent of all unauthorised fraud. Yet fraudsters will still attempt cheque fraud through counterfeiting, forgeries and fraudulently altering documents.
Our long-established relationships with UK high street banks has enabled us to be at the forefront of cheque fraud prevention by adopting both covert and overt security features.
With cheque image clearing now in place in the UK, and digital images of cheques used to process deposits and payments, Image Survivable Features (ISFs) are now bank-mandated. We have led the security print industry in this regard, working in close cooperation with DIA Europe BV, who provide the KappaFraud software solution behind the UK clearing system delivering comprehensive, automated forgery and counterfeit detection from cheque or giro images.
Our cheque fraud prevention tools involve the addition of a simple Unique Coded Number (UCN), an alpha-numeric string printed on the face of the cheque when it is initially created through to our patented encrypted QR code, UCN Plus®, developed in conjunction with DIA Europe that is added to business or ‘special’ cheques at the point of infilling. The UCN Plus® offers enhanced cheque fraud protection particularly when added to high value business cheque payments. The QR code incorporating more items of data from the infilled cheque.
We recognise the demand to reduce overheads and streamline processes within any business. Our knowledge and expertise within the payment processing industry has seen the development of combined technology to capitalise on the ICS, providing businesses with the outsourced, automated, cheque production, and image scanning solutions they need.
Our UCN Plus® Solution provides a comprehensive package of software, hardware and base stock designed to enable customers to print and infill their own cheques inhouse using their own internal resources.
Our Send-A-Cheque™ or cheque bureau services offer an outsourced print process where secure data files are sent to us, and cheques printed (and posted if required) on your behalf thus freeing up staff to perform more essential duties.
Our Banking Assistant software is a cheque and cash deposit management system that supports customers receiving cheque payments, (and wishing to deposit cheques remotely, depending on the individual bank or building society). It combines a desktop cheque scanner to capture the image and details from the cheques with a comprehensive software package that uses this data to:
- Create and balance your batch for banking
- Generate a searchable archive of cheque data and images for the cheque scanner
Award winning
Technology and software packages at the leading edge of the security print and payments industry.
Resource
Free up your internal staff to perform more essential duties
Comprehensive range
Choice of cheque fraud prevention, printing, and scanning tools to meet payment process demands
Fraud prevention
Industry-leading patented cheque fraud prevention solutions.
Flexible
Scalable cheque fraud prevention tools to meet operational requirements
Payment protection
ISFs in ICS highlight fraudulent transactions and documents
The benefits
Volume
Flexible and scalable
Comprehensive range of cheque processing packages to suit cheque volume requirements.
Satisfaction
Happy customers
Patented fraud prevention tools protect customers from fraudsters and fraudulent transactions
Cost saving
Reduction
Our cheque bureau services reduce the need for internal staffing and technology
Compliance
Conformity
Printed and scanned ISFs meet all current standards for onward transmission to customer, bank or switch.
Reliability
Customer service
Consistent levels of cheque printing, and processing backed by trouble-shooting resources.
Payment Protection
Your funds
ISFs designed to provide payment protection particularly for high value transactions
Other services you may also be interested in
Send-A-Cheque™ Service
Mailroom management and digitisation of all inbound customer communication for onward distribution, upload to online portals or relevant processing duties
Cash Allocation
Multiple payment channels allocated to appropriate customer accounts through automated or manual activities
FAQs
Image survivable features refer to elements embedded in an image that remain intact and legible
even after scanning, photography, multiple transformations, compressions, or edits. These features
ensure critical information, such as document content and metadata, persist on the image in a digital
format despite image manipulations.
These features are very important, as ISFs provide protection against copying, forgery, or alteration of
images. For example, if an image is copied, shared or edited online, survivable features like metadata
can provide information about the original printed document and its content. Therefore, this helps
protect the true content of the image, which is highly beneficial in an advancing world of AI and online
fraud.
As part of our cheque fraud prevention tools, Parseq provide two types of image survivable features
within our secure cheque printing services that capture information from the face of the printed
document.
The Unique Coded Number (UCN) encrypts the individual Cheque Number, Sort Code and Account
Number into a simple alphanumeric string using a secure encryption algorithm which is printed onto
the cheque in two designated positions. The UCN is always printed in two locations to ensure capture
even if a receipt stamp has been used or it is otherwise obscured. The information can be captured
when the document is first printed.
The UCN Plus ® is an encrypted QR (Quick Response) code printed on the face of the cheque and
covers all cheque MICR codeline and variable data, including payee name, amount and date from the
printed cheque. This information is captured and added to the cheque when it is infilled and provides
a more robust fraud prevention tool.
Talk to one of our cheque payment software experts today
Want to find out more? We would be happy to discuss your organisation’s challenges and how Parseq’s payment software solutions could quickly provide you with real value.
