Mike Beach, vice president of Image Payments,

Fifth Third Bank.

Financial Exposure

With millions of check images in play, failing to

account for even a single electronic file can have

a major impact. If a check image file fails during

the electronic delivery to a paying bank, Fifth Third

Bank will not receive credit for those deposited

items, thereby extending a non-earning asset on

the bank’s books due to the uncollected funds.

At the same time, Fifth Third Bank has provided

provisional credit to its customers. Therefore, dis-

covery and resolution of the problem is extremely

time critical. Consequently, lack of visibility into the

receipt, processing, and validation of these critical

business files results in significant financial expo-

sure to the bank including additional funding ex-

pense, additional labor from recreation of check

image files, and increased risk of duplicate files.

Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

Like many leading institutions, Fifth Third Bank is

committed to delivering consistent and reliable

service to its customers, enabling them to depend on

the service for delivery to their customers or to meet

their own business needs.

Multiple deposit channels, tight processing windows,

and various applications involved in the processing of

a check deposit can challenge consistent and reliable

delivery of SLAs.

Fifth Third Bank

For banks and financial institutions, the landscape

for check processing has undergone a dramatic

transformation in recent years. From a period

when a universal system was in place for clearing

paper checks, the overwhelming majority of

checks today are cleared through the electronic

exchange of critical business files often containing

thousands of check images. As a result, banks

have rushed to adopt technology solutions to

automate their back office and deposit channels,

including remote capture and image exchange.

ChallengeWhile this transition offers the opportunity for

greater efficiency and reduced costs, it presents

banks with a daunting set of new challenges,

including the need to 1) have full visualization

of the electronic check image payment process;

2) manage payment system data originating from

dozens of disparate data sources; and 3) gain

visibility into the electronic processing applications

preventing undetected system errors and workflow

bottlenecks.

These were the challenges facing Cincinnati-based

Fifth Third Bank, one of the top 20 banks in the U.S.

by asset size with more than 1,300 full service

banking centers, more than 2,300 ATMs and a

geographic footprint in 12 states extending from

Michigan to Florida. Fifth Third Bank processes 70

to 90 million inbound checks for deposit per month,

and another 45 to 50 million outbound check images

sent for collection. A single electronic file gener-

ated by Fifth Third Bank could, during peak days,

contain as many as 25,000 check images worth

millions or even billions of dollars. Fifth Third Bank

may process over 5,000 files daily from its various

electronic deposit and image exchange channels.

“Electronification has created new risks in the in-

dustry, including more dependency on technology

for visibility into the check processing flow,” said

Increasing Visibility into Checkand Image Process

Amonitoring solution to guaranteedelivery of image files and systemperformance is an absolute must forthe banks that are automating theirprocessing environments.

• Headquarters: Cincinnati, OH

• Industry: Banking

• Founded: 1858

• Employees: 21,000

• Locations: 1,300 fullservice banking centers

Increase operational efficiencyby creating a single, real-timeview of check and imageprocessing performance.Reduce business risksassociated with undetectederrors and workflow bottlenecks.

Real-time, end-to-end viewof check and image processingperformance based onBusinessBridge, Systar’sindustry-leading BusinessActivity Monitoring (BAM)platform.

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY:

CUSTOMER PROFILE

SOLUTION

BENEFITS

• Anticipate and resolveissues before businessimpact

• Reduced financialexposure and SLA Risk

• Optimized staff allocation

• Increased operationalefficiency

“

”Mike Beach, vice president of Image Payments,Fifth Third Bank

CHALLENGE

Significant to financial institutions, Systar’s solution

enables monitoring of critical files in the context

of the business, giving Fifth Third Bank total control

over management of files within the overall check

image processing environment. The Systar solution

addresses three key areas of the check image

exchange process: Landing Zone, Processing Zone

and Sending Zone.

“The big differentiator for us was the scalability of

Systar’s solution combined with demonstrated

BAM expertise,” adds Beach. “Using a collaborative

process, Systar helped us refine our requirements

so that the dashboards matched our true business

needs.”

With Systar’s monitoring solution, Fifth Third Bank

has end-to-end visibility into the entire process

through a robust, customized dashboard. Because

each deposit source was set up in the dashboard,

any time the bank receives a file or deposit from

any source the dashboard highlights what stage

of the process the electronic file is in. For Fifth

Third Bank, this dashboard capability is critical for

viewing whether files are moving without incident

through the process (green status); files are slow or

processing is hampered (yellow status); or files

are at a stop in the system for a pre-set period of

time or reaching a threshold dollar value (red status).

“The dashboard now provides us with an early

warning system,” notes Beach. “If the status is

yellow we can quickly investigate; and if the check

image workflow turns red, we can place a much

more informative call that speeds resolution.”

Rather than reviewing information from multiple

systems and layers of reports, Fifth Third Bank

desired a single, real-time view of performance

which would allow production staff to more easily

meet or exceed customer commitments.

Staffing resources

Fifth Third Bank processes check image files at

multiple geographic locations and on any given day,

staff at certain sites could face larger queues for

remediation than others. Anticipating the expansion

of the image processing platform across the company

footprint, the bank was looking for a more efficient

and proactive way to match resources to workloads,

across all sites, so it could maintain quality while

minimizing any required staff increases.

Solution: End-to-End Visibilityinto Payment and File ProcessExecutionIn evaluating market solutions that could provide

greater visibility into its check and image processing

environment, Fifth Third Bank had five key

requirements:

• Provide real-time process monitoring

• Deliver intuitive information and be easy to use

• Offer flexibility to monitor a variety of activities

and flows of information

• Scale to handle large volumes of payment

transactions

• Price competitive

Systar’s Business Activity Monitoring

(BAM) Platform

After significant analysis of available market solutions,

Fifth Third Bank found that Systar most effectively

met these requirements with a powerful check

image and process monitoring solution based on

BusinessBridge, Systar’s industry-leading Business

Activity Monitoring (BAM) platform. Systar BAM

solutions are used by 10 of the world’s 15 leading banks

to gain real-time insight into business performance,

anticipate operational issues, and mitigate risks.

Fifth Third Bank

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY:

Real-timemonitoringis vital given thetight time frameand potentialhigh item costassociated withimage exchange.

“

”Mike Beach, vice presidentof Image Payments,Fifth Third Bank

At the same time, Fifth Third Bank stays in control

with full knowledge of the what, where, when, why

and how as it pertains to check and image pro-

cessing.

“The Systar solution moved us from manual

and reactive to systematic and proactive,” said

Jason DeMent, vice president of Global Payments

Technology, Fifth Third Bank. “Now we can

immediately identify potential errors versus

reviewing many data points in order to target

the root cause.”

Optimized Staff Allocation

The real-time, universal view of multi-site

processing has enabled Fifth Third Bank to strike

the most effective balance between staff resources

and workloads. Operations staff can now use a

single dashboard to view status and queues for

remediation across all locations and proactively

contribute to any site imbalance without waiting to

be assigned. As a result, the bank can more

easily and cost-effectively adapt to a growing

customer base and increasing payment volumes.

Reduced Cost of Operations

The financial exposure associated with lack of

process visibility has been eased, and each group

(IT, Operations, Supervisors) spends substantially

less time trying to identify, understand, and

communicate issues. Real-time monitoring that

delivers a clear view of the entire check and image

processing environment, along with more dynamic

staff allocation, has enabled Fifth Third Bank to

increase operational efficiency and reduce costs.

“Real-time monitoring is invaluable in a production

environment,” said DeMent. “The benefits of the

solution are not limited to one group within our

bank. They are enterprise-wide benefits that

contribute to our overall efficiency and growth.”

Outcome: Increased Efficiencyand Reduced RiskSystar’s check and image process monitoring

solution based on BusinessBridge is delivering

several key benefits to Fifth Third Bank:

Reduced Financial Exposure

Creating visibility through each processing step of

an image file all the way through the check clearing

process has eliminated the financial burden as

result of delayed deposit presentment. The Systar

BAM solution has enabled Fifth Third Bank to take

immediate action when image files have been

delayed in the process, ensuring timely and

accurate receipt of credit and the least cost routing

of image files.

“Real-time monitoring is vital given the tight time

frame and potential high item cost associated with

image exchange,” said Beach. “The solution

provides the visibility and guaranteed file delivery

required to efficiently manage our entire check

and image processing system.”

Reduced SLA Risk and Greater Control

Fifth Third Bank has greatly enhanced its ability

to measure performance to ensure SLAs are met.

The bank can now better anticipate operational

issues and address them before there is a business

impact.

The Systar solutionmoved us frommanual and reactiveto systematic andproactive.

Fifth Third Bank

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY:

Fifth Third Bank Control Center

“

”Jason DeMent, vice presidentof Global Payments TechnologyFifth Third Bank

www.systar.com

ABOUT SYSTAR

INTERNATIONALPRESENCE

Fifth Third Bank

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY:

Systar, BusinessBridge, OmniVision, BusinessVision, ServiceVision, WideVision and Systar’s logo areregistered trademarks of Systar. All other brand names, product names and trademarks are the propertyof their respective owners. Copyright 2010.

Over 180 clients worldwide,including 10 of the world’s 15largest banks, rely on Systar’sperformance managementsoftware to maximize the efficiencyof their business operations andIT infrastructure. Systar is widelyregarded as the leading providerof Business Activity Monitoring(BAM) solutions and offersinnovative capacity managementsoftware for both physical andvirtual server environments.Systar is listed on the NYSEEuronext Paris Stock Exchange(ISIN: FR0000052854-SAR), andhas offices in North America andEurope. More information aboutSystar is available atwww.systar.com.

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