Aite Group (Boston) published a report titled Remote Deposit: All Talk, Little Action, With a lot of Potential citing that thus far less than 100 banks offer remote deposit and only 5% of business customers are utilizing the new technology. Many smaller banks are adopting a wait and see stance, although the bigger banks with greater technology resources are offering the product, including Bank of America, Mellon, SunTrust, Wells Fargo, and KeyCorp. Because full blown image exchange enabled by Check 21 is still not yet a reality 95% of the banks offering remote capture are having to print substitute checks for presentment to non image-enabled paying banks.

"Though remote deposit produced better-than-expected results for those banks offering it, 2005 was nothing more than the year of the pilot," notes Christine Barry, Director of Research with Aite Group and author of the report. "This technology will take off over the next few years as image exchanges better communicate, a shift is made toward thin-client solutions, concerns about fraud are mitigated, and greater adoption rates are achieved by both banks and their business customers."

Yet given the enthusiasm I witness at industry events, and the conversations I've had with bankers and corporate practitioners it only a matter of time before Remote Capture takes off. The study underscores my observations – predicting that 500 banks will offer remote deposit by 2008 and 15% of companies will be using it by 2010.