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Nathan Golia
Nathan Golia
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Wells Fargo Expands Check Scanning: Opportunity for Agents?

The bank has announced support for Panini scanners: Could their brokerage arm embrace them?

San Francisco-based retail bank Wells Fargo said today that it is supporting business owners who use Panini mobile check scanners for Apple Macintosh computers.

The new service is available to all Wells Fargo Commercial Electronic Office Desktop Deposit users who have deployed the hardware.

“Wells Fargo supports the technology our customers use in the workplace and wherever they go,” said Katie Knight, who heads the CEO Desktop Deposit service for Wells Fargo, in a statement. “Apple is growing its business market substantially, and we’ve partnered with Panini to support Macs for remote deposit capture to ensure we are meeting the changing needs of our customers.”

I recently made an insurance payment at my agent's office, and noticed that they lacked a payment console to scan my credit card. An employee typed my card information into their computer. While the process didn't bother me any, I can see why it might get frustrating for agents who collect payments in a variety of channels — including, I'm sure, some checks — to have to key in manually all the payment information. Wells Fargo runs an insurance brokerage — might it want to incorporate their payment innovations in that arm of its business?

In a world where Square allows even the smallest merchants to take credit card payments on their iPhone, and PayPal is announcing partnerships with retailers, insurers should make sure their agents aren't left behind in the rapidly evolving world of alternate payments.

Nathan Golia is senior editor of Insurance & Technology. He joined the publication in 2010 as associate editor and covers all aspects of the nexus between insurance and information technology, including mobility, distribution, core systems, customer interaction, and risk ... View Full Bio

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