First Tennessee Bank announces job cuts

First Tennessee Bank will cut jobs at its check processing centers, including 10 positions in Memphis, company executives said Wednesday.

The move, involving 70 full- and part-time jobs in all, should save the Memphis-based bank about $2 million a year, said Jim Blasingame, executive vice president and manager of the bank operations division.

It's all because of Check 21 and the new technology the bank has installed because of the 2004 law, he said.

"It's a good thing because it allows them to become more efficient," said Kevin Reynolds, banking analyst for Stanford Financial Group in Memphis.

"Instead of shipping paper (checks) around the country, we can clear images," Blasingame said.

That was the objective of Check 21 -- to allow financial institutions to use images of checks rather than checks themselves to process the payments made with the checks.

With less paper to handle and more digital imaging, you need less people, at least in theory, Reynolds said.

For First Tennessee, that means elimination of the proof department and consolidation of check processing centers in Memphis and Maryville, Tenn., Blasingame said.

Workers in the proof department take checks that arrive from bank branches without the dollar amounts in computer code on them -- and occasionally without account numbers -- and punch in the code.

With new equipment, scanners can read about 80 percent of those checks now, Blasingame said.

While the moves will mean 10 fewer jobs in Memphis and 60 less in Maryville, some of them part-time positions, the bank will add 20 others by opening small processing centers in Chattanooga, Nashville and Johnson City, he said.

The changes in Memphis will be done around April 1. The Maryville jobs will go in June or July. Bankers will try to find other jobs within First Tennessee for the employees and Blasingame expects no more than 30 will be laid off.

What are people saying about mortgages today:

Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down last week to a seven-month low. Mortgage-giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 6.3 percent, down slightly from 6.31 percent two weeks ago. It put rates at the lowest level since they were at 6.24 percent the first week of March.

Bank of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, Territorial Savings Bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgages all cut their 30-year mortgage rates to 5.75 percent this week.

Most people think of a mortgage as a means to an end. After all, you buy a house, not a home loan. But a mortgage is much more than the path to homeownership. It is a financial instrument that must be managed, just like any other financial investment.