Kalamazoo Security Print Helps the Treasury Solicitor’s Department Cut Costs and Fraud
When the Treasury Solicitor’s Department (TSol) required a new, secure cheque printing system for their payment operation, Kalamazoo Security Print provided the solution with its Office of HM Paymaster General (OPG) approved CheqflowTM Laser Secure package. Eighteen months later, with a substantial reduction in costs and opportunities for fraud, the TSol cannot imagine life without it.
CheqflowTM Laser Secure OPG is a digital payment solution that enables the creation and printing of payable orders. Printing the MICR code line, remittance advice, authorised signatures, organisation and bank details onto OPG, Bank of England and APACS- (Association for Payment Clearing Services) approved base stationery. Fast and secure, the system is invaluable to companies dealing with large numbers of payments. The security of payable orders is imperative as unlike cheques, they represent ‘guaranteed payment’ and are particularly susceptible to fraud. The TSol provides legal services to over 160 central government departments and other publicly funded bodies in England and Wales. As one of the largest legal organisations in the UK with over 700 employees, the vast number of cheques sent out means potential security risks and high costs.
For maximum security, TSol combines CheqflowTM Laser Secure OPG, with Kalamazoo’s additional Cheqfont™ Secure solution. This is a unique overprinting facility giving a wallpaper (repeat print) of the payee and amount paid in a step and repeat pattern in the background of the payable order. This makes it virtually impossible to make alterations to the document.
Since using Kalamazoo’s system, TSol has not experienced any attempts of fraudulent alteration.
Allan Sullivan of TSol commented “Our previous system was slow and expensive. We used pre-printed cheques containing full bank details which increased the risk of fraud. These were hand-passed through a dot-matrix printer, which then took a long time to print. The noise emanating from the printer soon became an irritating problem. When the OPG approved Kalamazoo as a supplier, we were very interested in looking at alternative systems. We were therefore delighted to find that CheqflowTM Laser Secure met, and in some cases exceeded, our requirements.”
One of the financial implications of the previous system was the high cost of stationery and the need to buy in bulk. This caused problems as TSol used multiple bank accounts to pay out, each using different pay order stationery. Smaller accounts required less stationery, but due to the mechanics of bulk buying – the more ordered the less expensive it is – these accounts were much more costly to service.
The problems of speed, cost and security were quickly solved with the implementation of CheqflowTM Laser Secure OPG, and thanks to an understanding of the financial systems already in place, the transition to Kalamazoo was rapid and smooth.
Kalamazoo’s CheqflowTM Laser Secure OPG eliminated the need to purchase various pre-printed payable orders and provided the Treasury Solicitors with cheaper, set-price stationery, which meant that all accounts were equally economical.
Maureen Bott, Product & Development Manager at Kalamazoo Security Print, explained “Security can be enhanced through the separation of duties, whilst swipe card technology controls the use of approved signatures. Kalamazoo’s stationery exceeds APACS requirements, whilst the secure printer has physical lockable keys to ensure it is tamper-proof. Details such as names and bank numbers are never printed on the base stationery, thereby reducing the possibility of in-house fraud.”
Efficiency was also dramatically increased by removing of the need to sort and burst payable orders. Kalamazoo’s OPG-approved base stationery has a lay-out specific to the Treasury Solicitors, which eliminates set up times and wastage. CheqflowTM Laser Secure OPG also takes care of compiling the complete lists of names and amounts required by the OPG, saving time and effort for the client.
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