LaSalle Bank Depositing Image Cash Letters With Federal Reserve Bank

CHICAGO, Jan. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- LaSalle Bank N.A. continues to build upon its treasury management-based solutions and is now depositing image cash letters with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the cash letters are deposited through SVPCO's Image Payments Network. The Federal Reserve Bank will forward these items for presentment to the paying banks as images or substitute checks. This capability enables LaSalle Bank to transmit electronic images of checks, reducing and ultimately eliminating the need to transport the physical items.

Electronic exchange of check images allows LaSalle Bank to further leverage the opportunities created by Check 21 legislation, which provided the foundation for banks to capture, send and receive electronic images of checks; and eventually eliminate paper items from the clearing process.

In March 2005, LaSalle Bank rolled out its remote image capture solution, CashPro(R) Electronic Deposit. To date, more than 100 corporate clients are using the service. "Many of our clients are experiencing more efficient internal processes, cost savings and faster access to incoming cash as a result of electronic deposit," said Cindy Murray, executive vice president and head of LaSalle Bank's Treasury Management group. "We are excited to take the next step in overcoming the industry-wide challenges associated with processing paper checks, while gaining operational efficiencies, additional security safeguards and control over check processing."

Through the use of image check clearing, LaSalle Bank will clear both commercial and consumer checks. Image exchange allows the bank more choices in clearing options to optimize the funds availability and cost of clearing each item, including paper checks, substitute checks, electronic images and ACH. As the industry continues to ramp up the volume of checks cleared via image, clients' funds availability will be less impacted by weather-related delays, natural disasters and acts of terrorism that may halt air and ground transportation thereby delaying check processing.

"Our participation in check image exchange demonstrates LaSalle Bank's commitment to being not only a participant, but a leader in the evolution of the U.S. payments industry," added Murray. "Our ongoing development of image strategies and our investment in image technologies will result in a robust set of additional services and capabilities."

"The Federal Reserve Banks are excited to provide our customers with access to image deposit and presentment services that can help them realize the benefits of Check 21. Our collaboration with LaSalle Bank and many other innovative organizations is leading the industry toward a more efficient and effective payments system," commented Michael Hoppe, vice president for the Federal Reserve System.

About LaSalle Bank

LaSalle Bank N.A. is the largest bank headquartered in Chicago with $73 billion in assets and $42.5 billion in deposits. LaSalle Bank serves individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies and institutions through 140 retail locations, 500 ATMs, and on-line at lasallebank.com throughout Chicago and the neighboring suburbs.

LaSalle Bank operates in 23 states and maintains commercial banking offices in 19 cities across the U.S. and offers specialty services through its subsidiaries LaSalle National Leasing Corporation, LaSalle Business Credit, LLC and LaSalle Financial Services, Inc.

Parent company LaSalle Bank Corporation is headquartered in Chicago with $114 billion in assets and is a subsidiary of Netherlands-based ABN AMRO Bank N.V., one of the world's largest banks with total assets of EUR 855.7 billion and more than 3,000 locations in over 60 countries.

About the Federal Reserve Banks

The Federal Reserve Banks are the nation's largest processors of inter- bank check payments, clearing approximately half of all inter-bank checks written in the United States. They offer a full range of financial services including Cash, Check, FedImage(SM) Services, FedACH(R), Fedwire(R) Funds Service, Fedwire Securities Service and National Settlement Service. In addition, the Federal Reserve Banks also offer services designed to support the use of Financial Services, including Account Management Information and Service Charge Information.

About SVPCO And The Clearing House Payments Company

SVPCO is a business of The Clearing House Payments Company L.L.C. ( http://www.theclearinghouse.org/ ), the private-sector, global payment systems infrastructure that clears and settles 25 million payments for more than $1.5 trillion per day. The Clearing House serves more than 1,600 U.S. financial institutions and hundreds of international participants with payment services that span the entire spectrum of paper, paper-to-electronic and electronic payments. Services include local and regional check exchange and settlement services; ACH association and operations; large-value "wire" payments; electronic check presentment; and an image exchange. Financial institutions of all sizes benefit from payment systems that meet the highest standards for reliability, security and service. The Clearing House Payments Company is owned by the following banks or their U.S. banking affiliates: Bank of America, The Bank of New York, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi/Union Bank of California, BB&T, City National Bank, Citibank, Citizens Bank, Comerica Bank, Deutsche Bank, First-Citizens Bank, HSBC Bank, JPMorgan Chase Bank, KeyBank, LaSalle Bank, M&T Bank, National City Bank, PNC Bank, UBS, U.S. Bank, Wachovia Bank, and Wells Fargo Bank.

CashPro is a registered service mark of LaSalle Bank Corporation.

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