Banking Industry Article

Dillow named top innovator for system that protects clients and BB&T's reputation

December 2008

Imagine how you would feel if your mortgage payment was deducted from your checking account twice or maybe three times in a month.

It could happen due to an industry-wide problem with duplicate check payments. At BB&T the odds of that happening are low thanks to Regional Operations Support Manager Tim Dillow.

Dillow was recently named among Bank Technology News' Top 25 innovators for helping to develop a system that detects possible duplicate check payments over a 45-day period. When the system identifies a suspicious check payment, it is immediately flagged and reviewed by a member of BB&T's Item Processing team. If it is determined to be a duplicate payment, it is forwarded to the Adjustments Department for return to the originator. The client's account is never affected by this growing industry problem, Dillow said.

"At BB&T we are leading the industry in developing the technology to address this problem," he said. "The issue began with the development of Check 21 and the widespread use of check images in lieu of the physical paper check."

To put it in perspective, BB&T processes an average of 3.5 million items a day. In October, BB&T reviewed more than 29,000 payments that the system identified as possible duplicates. Of those, nearly 9,000 were confirmed as duplicates. Dillow estimates this innovative solution will save BB&T an estimated $2 million a year by eliminating the time it would take employees to correct the duplicate charges if they actually posted to clients accounts. Plus, it helps protect BB&T’s reputation, he said.

Dillow has not only been named an industry innovator, he’s also become a sought-after speaker by professional groups such as Global Concepts who want to hear how BB&T and CONIX Systems have addressed the duplicate check image issue.

"We’ve only been using the system we developed about six months, but I think it’s really going to be a profitable product for CONIX,” he said.

For more information, see the Bank Technology News article.