DeFranzo Goes Undefeated on Dominiak Tour Dominiak Cues Northeast 10-Ball Tour / Windsor Locks, CT by Kevin Vidal Bruce DeFranzo took home the title at the October 24 stop of the Dominiak Cues Northeast Amateur 10-Ball Tour, defeating Steve Parise in the final match. The stop was hosted by Pool Table Magic in Windsor Locks, CT, and hosted [...]

Flamingo Billiards Tour Hosts Cues for the Cure Fort Pierce, FL (Oct. 26, 2009) – In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the women of the Flamingo Billiards Tour hosted “Cues for the Cure” during their October 24 tour stop at Ultimate Billiards in Fort Pierce, FL. Players and spectators competed in a 4-ball competition and other [...]

Vidal and Glazebrook Take Top Predator Honors Predator 9-Ball Tour / New York, NY by InsidePOOL Staff Eastside Billiards in New York, NY, played host to the October 24-25 Predator 9-Ball Tour stop. This event drew some of the strongest players in the Tri-State area, including Sean “Alaska” Morgan, Mhet Vergara, and Jorge Rodriguez, with Marc “Spain” [...]

Fisher Wins Second KwikFire Tour Stop KwiKFire Tour / Rock Hill, SC by Kim Shaw The newly titled Kwikfire Tour held its second event at the Silver Dollar Saloon in Rock Hill, SC, the weekend of October 24-25. Many local fans came to watch 29 players compete, including 10 APA players and 6 top WPBA professionals, including [...]

First, we didn't need to visit the bank teller anymore. Then we were able to stick our checks right into the ATM without an envelope. Now we won't have to leave the house to make deposits.

Earlier this month, Sacramento-based Schools Financial Credit Union became the latest bank to allow customers to scan checks at home and deposit them over the Internet. Golden 1 Credit Union introduced scanner-based check deposits in July.

"Banking's not the way it was five or 10 years ago," said Nathan Schmidt, a vice president at Schools Financial. "With any type of technology, it becomes more convenient to self-service."

Another lender, USAA Federal Savings Bank, has gone even further down the convenience road. It allows customers to deposit checks with their iPhones by taking pictures of both sides of the check with the phone's camera.

According to an Oct. 6 article in American Banker, USAA customers have deposited more than 100,000 checks totaling $61 million with their iPhones since the service became available in August.

The article went on to say that giant Bank of America is expected to start testing mobile phone deposits soon.

Even with the widespread use of direct deposit and online banking, Americans still write and receive millions of paper checks each year.

A 2008 press release from the U.S. Treasury Department said that one in three Americans don't use direct deposit, including 10.5 million Social Security recipients.

And for the most part, when we have to deposit a paper check, we still need to go to an ATM to do it.

Businesses have been making deposits over the Internet for longer, ever since the passage in 2004 of the federal Check 21 Act.

Crafted in response to the banking system's paralysis in the wake of the terror attacks of September 2001, the act made a digital image of a check legally acceptable for payment.

Wednesday marks the act's fifth anniversary.

Businesses quickly saw the benefits of the new law. Sending checks as digital images eliminated courier costs and paperwork.

More than 60 percent of U.S. banks now offer merchant remote deposit – up from 50 percent in 2008, according to a June study by the Washington, D.C.-based Independent Community Bankers of America. Some 78 percent of banks plan to adopt the technology by 2011, the study found.

The extension of the service to consumers has come much more slowly. Cary Whaley, a director at the bankers group, said financial institutions have been wary about potential fraud.

"For many banks, it remains a business application," Whaley said. "The next step is the consumer side, but a lot of community banks are a little wary. When you're getting into thousands of consumers, the challenge for banks and credit unions is not only monitoring risk, but monitoring for changes in transactions and transaction amounts."

But some bankers said consumers are increasingly demanding the same convenience given to their business counterparts, and it's simply a matter of time before remote deposits become much more widespread.

Fewer than 1 million residential bank customers currently make deposits remotely over the Internet. But that number is expected to explode as more consumers catch on, and more banks make it available.

"It's clearly on the upswing," said John Leekley, founder and chief executive officer of the Georgia-based industry Web site RemoteDepositCapture.com. "The question is not whether we're going to reach 5 million, it's when. It's a matter of convenience and efficiency. I don't know anyone who enjoys going to a bank branch.

"If you can just scan a check on a phone or a home computer, it's really about getting that check sooner so you can get your money sooner."

When Schools Financial Credit Union decided to take the plunge, it included safeguards to prevent abuse. Customers must use their existing secure online banking log-in, and can't transmit items more than twice a day.

Users have a time limit to scan and deposit the check online and checks must meet specific requirements before they are deposited. Post-dated, damaged or lightly printed checks, for instance, will not scan properly and cannot be deposited.

Schools is rolling the program out over time. It will be available to all 40,000 members who bank online by mid-November.

All it requires to make a deposit is a digital scanner and a computer with an Internet connection.

In Sacramento, Golden 1 rolled out its Z@piT online deposit service in July to a customer base comfortable with doing business online. About 200 members are enrolled.

"So many people prefer to do self-service. They choose to go online – maybe they're parents with small kids, or they might not want to go to an ATM at 3 a.m.," said Golden One's chief executive officer, Teresa Halleck.

"People are already online," she said. "They're comfortable with electronic delivery and they're looking for more."

Immonen Earns Second Consecutive U.S. Open Title U.S. Open 9-Ball Championships / Chesapeake, VA by Lea Andrews Mika “Iceman” Immonen tied with Nick Varner when he took his second U.S. Open Championships title in a row, winning 13-10 over Ralf Souquet in the extended final match. The Open began October 18 with 216 players and wound down a [...]

Mitchell Bests Road Partner in Flamingo Finals Flamingo Billiards Tour / Fort Pierce, FL by InsidePOOL Staff Gas money was no problem on the ride home for Stephanie Mitchell and Sabra MacArthur-Beahn as the two took home the top prizes in the $250-added Flamingo Billiards Tour stop held October 24. The pair had road-tripped together across the [...]

Four Men Standing at U.S. Open U.S. Open 9-Ball Championships / Chesapeake, VA by Lea Andrews It’s official: Either Donnie Mills or 2002 U.S. Open Champion Ralf Souquet—or both—will be racing to 13 in the finals of the 34th Annual U.S. Open 9-Ball Championships Saturday. The two men, who were part of the original field of 216 [...]

InsWeb Corp., the Gold River-based online provider of insurance quotes, reported a net loss of $870,000, or 18 cents a share, in the third quarter ended Sept. 30.

The company lost $552,000, or 12 cents a share, in the third quarter of 2008.

Quarterly revenue was $8.9 million, down slightly from $9 million in the year-ago period.

Last month, InsWeb said it had reduced its work force from 87 to 61, the number of employees it had at the close of 2007. Most of the staff reductions were in its technology segment.

– Mark Glover