Household HSBC Watch

BOSTON — The Association for Work Process Improvement honored HSBC Bank USA as the winner of its Remittance Processing Council’s first annual excellence award. The award will be presented in Chicago next month. According to a news release, the bank was selected because of its innovative approach to lockbox integration of Check 21, image-exchange and check-conversion. TAWPI said HSBC’s adoption of payment technology advances the goal of reducing unit costs to the bank and providing benefits to its biller customers.

What they don’t tell bank customers is that check 21 does not require a time stamp for direct deposits. Simply put, the bank adheres to Check 21 and processes your checks and ACH debits as soon as they appear. Your social security retirement or military retirement, on the other hand, is not date-time stamped and they can hold it.

When Check 21 works to the benefit of customers, not the banks, it will be a better system. As an example USAA Savings Bank often credits military retirement deposits when they appear, and often on the 29th of the month. Compass Bank, Redstone Federal Credit Union, and others don’t even show military retirements until the nightly update on the first of the month or later.