Strategies to increase profitability of your check program
by: Wendy Blaeser
Increasing revenue while reducing costs – it’s a universal goal for financial institutions. Yet with a regulatory environment and economic conditions that are constantly in flux, it can be singularly challenging to achieve that ideal balance of making more money while spending less. Credit unions that do so live to loan another day. Those that don’t go the way of the dodo.
Of course, every financial institution looks for new markets and products that can boost revenue for the lowest possible cost – and that’s a good thing. But is your credit union undervaluing a tried-and-true income stream? We’re talking about the lowly check order.
Despite the meteoric rise of e-payments, checks remain a viable payment form. Consider these numbers:
- $86.4 billion a day changes hands in America via checks — $1 million per second.
- In 2012, consumers and businesses wrote more than 21 billion checks.
- Deluxe prints 4.2 billion checks per year.
