Not really, the checks were always processed with an automated system (98% or so of all checks are processed without ever being seen by human eyes), the information on the deposit slip was only of limited significance.
It is, of course, an issue but just not a very big one. Empty envelope fraud and Check 21 are the primary drivers.
Empty envelope fraud - People would take advantage of the cash back feature of ATM deposits by depositing empty envelopes taking back the $100 and doing this for the 1-3 days before it is caught and the account closed (fraudulently opened accounts, of course). One successful instance of this ($100) is the same cost as about 1,300 data entry errors that fail out to the manual process (about $0.075 each).
Check 21 - Allows check images to be processed as if they were the source paper. If the ATM images the check it can be put into the processing pipeline immediately cutting down by a couple days the processing time to almost immediate (floating checks hoping to deposit before it clears is an increasingly bad idea). This saves banks a lot of money because such ATMs need only be maintained for money and mechanical issues rather than daily to retrieve deposits for processing. The expense here (hiring the armored trucks to do it is very expensive) again far outweighs the costs of user error.
|