For years, financial institutions have delivered to their customers statements that looked the same month after month. They could do little to change the statements' format, appearance and content. BIT Statement, a document creation and delivery company in Seattle, found a solution. The company's eStatements proprietary software gives financial institutions such as credit unions and banks the control and flexibility to create customized online statements and more.

A credit union, one of BIT Statement's client, wanted to send monthly account statements to its members. Each month, the credit union sends data to BIT Statement via a secure FTP site. The software, which accepts data in a variety of formats, puts it into an SQL database, processes it, and places it into data fields such as name, address and social security number on a predetermined statement format.

BIT Statement puts an eStatements' link on the credit union's web site for its members to register. After clicking the link, a member views the eStatement registration page, which is branded with the credit union's name and logo. BIT Statement authenticates the member's SSN, DOB, and account number. The member provides his or her name and email address, selects a username and password, and accepts the user agreement.

The member can link all of his or her credit union accounts to view the account statements in PDF formats with a single logon. When a new statement is posted each month, BIT Statement sends an email to the member with a link to the credit union's eStatement log-on page. The company also sends a reminder email to members who haven't viewed their statements after a certain amount of time has elapsed. Members can view, print and download statements from desktop computers at their convenience. BIT Statement also works with several check image providers to include check images in the online statements. It prints and mails paper statements to members who prefer the traditional way.

Kelly Warfel, vice president of sales and marketing at BIT Statement, says many clients add marketing messages to the online statements. BIT Statement can add customized PDF marketing files to account holders' screens before they access online statements, embed eye-catching graphics into statement messages for greater visibility, insert hyperlinks to related information such as online application forms or rates for the services being promoted, and embed links to streaming video promotions. To make the marketing efforts effective, the company delivers different messages to different account holders.

Warfel says a financial institution can slash costs by 65 percent when it replaces paper statements with online ones because of reduced paper stock, envelope, processing and postage costs. Plus, it doesn't need to invest in additional hardware and software to use the software. End users receive statements quickly with reduced exposure to identity theft from mail fraud.

Distributors benefit, too. Because banks and credit unions are technology-savvy, they're more comfortable working with distributors that show similar capabilities. "They value working with companies that continue to evolve their products," Warfel says.

Offering online statements is a value-added service, one that ensures customer loyalty. Once the credit unions and banks use the technology, it's hard for them to work with other companies because of the convenience and ease of use, Warfel says. "The program works so well that we have zero attrition," she says. "We have institutions that convert other online statement programs over to our company, but none that convert to other providers." BIT Statement maintains the web site and related services for distributors who offer eStatements to their customers.

Once the doors open, distributors can gain more work from credit unions and banks. "It starts with the statement work," Warfel says. "Then it evolves into the daily notices such as NSF notices, CD maturity notices, late notices, and then the annual tax forms."

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