Branch image capture adoption is now nearly ubiquitous. With less urgency, banks are now determining their end game. Image (also known as intelligent deposit) ATMs now represent 43% of deposit-taking ATMs.

Fueled by image exchange adoption and the increasing cost of processing paper checks, branch capture solutions have been installed or are being installed at 9 out of10 US financial institutions. As traditional paper check processing infrastructures are dismantled, distributed capture models will become a practical necessity among the remaining institutions.

According to a new report, Imaging in the Retail Channel 2011: Seventh Inning Stretch, Celent expects a 98% adoption rate of branch and/or teller capture solutions within the next two years. Image ATM adoption will be far more measured by comparison. For most financial institutions, the ATM channel will be the last domino to fall in image migration.

“After a fast-paced ball game over the past several years, banks are taking a seventh inning stretch,” says Bob Meara, Senior Analyst with Celent’s Banking Group and author of the report. “Under growing cost pressures, many banks are taking time to consider their imaging end game, in terms of both capture and downstream processing. Lots of options are in play now.”