Do you ever wonder what happens to signatures on the checks you sign? On two different days your signature, although genuine, might look very different. So why don’t you ever get a call from the bank asking to confirm a transaction?

There are a number of reasons, but one might be that their signature analysts understand that there’s a certain amount of variability between genuine signatures. Another could be that the dollar amount was under a threshold and that your signature was never reviewed. After all, most organizations can’t affordably staff for the number of signatures going through the system at any given time, so they focus on higher-risk items.

Signature verification software can play a valuable role here. Not only can it process more documents (meaning ALL checks can be processed), but over large numbers it can do so more accurately than humans.

This isn’t a call to eliminate humans from the equation. After all, human variability nicely complements the steady, unwavering predictability of software algorithms. To minimize fraud detection, the best mix involves both software verification and human exception handling—which reviews signatures when the software reports lower confidence levels.

Time to consider your signature strategy. If you could examine every signature, what would its value be to your risk management process? What signatures are worth examining? Loans? Safe Deposit Boxes? Checks? Vote-by-mail ballots? Applications?

This blog will be spending more time on signatures in the future. In the meantime, have a look at a short video we recently created, and if you want to take a deeper dive, read our whitepaper: “Automating Signature Verification: What You Need to Know”