Improvements in image technology, continued declines in telecommunications costs, and continued reengineering of banks' back-office processes have the potential to alter current processes. Introducing an intermediate step of creating a substitute check that is the legal equivalent of the original check may help create conditions that are conducive to expanding the network of banks agreeing to electronic collection.
Let me emphasize again, however, that each bank must weigh its  4  BIS Review 42/2001  own costs and benefits and decide whether to invest in image technology, to retain a service provider to provide image-based capture and data processing services, or to stay with traditional paper processing.