Fed Unveils Suite of National Check Products

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To provide its customers with a consistent portfolio of nationwide electronic check products, the Federal Reserve recently announced a System-wide standardization effort. Effective April 3, the names, definitions and billing codes for core nationwide electronic check products will be uniform among all 12 Fed districts. The move is a direct response to requests for product consistency from the growing number of financial institutions that use the services of multiple Reserve Banks. By creating common payor billing codes and descriptions for the standard line of electronic check products, the Fed hopes that financial institutions will find it easier to reconcile their billing statements and manage their electronic check services more efficiently. The first step in defining the standard products was to classify all products into one of three categories:
• national products with national definitions (to be offered by all Reserve Banks), • national products with a local option (to be offered at the discretion of each Reserve Bank), and • local products with local definitions. Once the products were classified, consensus was reached regarding which products to offer, how to define them and how to price them. Every effort was made to accommodate unique offerings within the System, while at the same time meeting the primary objective of developing a standard list of electronic check products. As a result, you will notice two changes in our District's fee structure this April. First, you will no longer be charged either a minimum daily fee or a per-item fee based on volume. Instead, we will charge fixed daily and per-item fees, regardless of volume.
Second, the practice of bundling electronic reject repair items into the MICR Presentment product will be discontinued. Instead, you will be billed for all reject items electronically repaired under the MICR Present-ment product. For a complete list of nationwide electronic check products and detailed product information, see the Fed's Financial Services web site, www.frbservices.org. If you have questions or comments about the Fed's standardization effort, contact your local account executive.
The following chart lists each national Fed service that will be billed under a new standard name. Service Billing Name PRESENTMENT SERVICES MICR Presentment Plus Presentment Plus INFORMATION SERVICES Basic Early MICR Information Early MICR - Basic Key Account Totals Account Totals PRESENTMENT POINT SERVICES Basic Primary Presentment Point Service Primary Presentment Point - Basic Enhanced Primary Presentment Point Service Primary Presentment Point - Enhanced Basic Alternate Presentment Point Service Alternate Presentment Point - Basic Enhanced Alternate Presentment Point Service Alternate Presentment Point - Enhanced FINE SORT SERVICES Same Day Settlement Fine Sort Processing SDS Fine Sort ELECTRONIC CASH LETTER PRODUCTS City Regular Electronic Cash Letter (ECL) City Regular – ECL RCPC Regular Electronic Cash Letter (ECL) Regular RCPC – ECL RCPC Premium Electronic Cash Letter (ECL) Premium RCPC – ECL High Dollar Group Sort Electronic Cash Letter (ECL) HDGS – ECL Other Fed Electronic Cash Letter (ECL) Other Fed – ECL Nationwide City Sort Electronic Cash Letter (ECL) Nationwide City Sort – ECL Mixed Deposit Electronic Cash Letter (ECL) Mixed – ECL Country Regular Electronic Cash Letter (ECL) Regular Country – ECL Country Premium Electronic Cash Letter (ECL) Premium Country – ECL