Published March 2001

With I-Pro, EverTrust takes charge of check processing

By Bryan Corliss
Herald Economy Writer

EVERETT — Somewhere in a Kent industrial park, a select band sworn to secrecy works into the night — processing your bank statements.

They work for I-Pro, a company formed and owned by EverTrust Financial Group, which also is the parent company of EverTrust Bank, the former Everett Mutual Bank.

EverTrust is one of the few banking companies that contracts with other financial institutions to process checks and help prepare monthly statements, said Lori Christenson.

She’s the Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer for EverTrust, but she was the first President of I-Pro.

Most small banks and credit unions don’t process checks and prepare monthly statements in-house, Christenson said. It’s just not cost effective for the small institutions to do it. Most contract with companies that specialize in processing — Fiserv and Unisys being the two in this region.

Up until three years ago, Everett Mutual also contracted out its check processing. But there were enough problems — monthly statements going out 10 days late, long delays in getting copies of checks for customers — that the company, in 1997, started processing checks on its own.

The process of “capturing” checks is straightforward, Christenson said: Make an image of the check, subtract the amount from the account balance, store the image. The advantage EverTrust has with I-Pro is that as a new company, it has new technology that allows it to process the checks digitally.

The new processing equipment takes digital pictures that are stored as computer files, making the search for copies of checks much easier than the old method, which was to store the pictures on microfilm or microfiche, Christenson said.

To ensure customer privacy, the people who handle the accounts are bonded, and the company undergoes third-party audits, Christenson said.

I-Pro right now has two other banks it does processing for, and it’s also looking for potential nonbank customers — like insurance companies or law firms.

With EverTrust’s conversion to a publicly traded bank company, Christenson has been moved into the corporate office and has less day-to-day dealings with I-Pro operations. EverTrust has hired John Davies, a former lender, to oversee the company.

But Christenson has fond memories.

“It’s a really fun business,” she said.

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