Fed Develops New Check Products
to Respond to Customer Needs

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With more than 1,500 financial institutions in the Eighth District, the variations in check services are vast. Nevertheless, each of the four St. Louis Fed offices strives to provide individualized service. When current or potential customers request deposit alternatives, the Fed makes every effort to meet their needs, often developing customized products and services. The following new products and services will be available to Eighth District customers over the next month. Branching Out Effective Sept. 18, all District offices will offer an Extended Premium RCPC product. Currently, each office has a 3 a.m. Premium RCPC deposit deadline. The Extended Premium RCPC, with a 4 a.m. deadline, provides an additional hour to accommodate delays incurred by depositors. The cash letter fee for each office is $5, while the per-item fees are tiered at $0.054, $0.057 and $0.060. Effective Sept. 18, the Memphis Office will implement two new five-pocket Other Fed Return Group Sorts. The first new sort will have a 7 p.m. deadline, a $5 cash letter fee and a $0.85 per-item fee. The second will have a 9 p.m. deadline, a $5 cash letter fee and a $0.68 per-item fee. Effective Sept. 25, a Select High Dollar Group Sort (HDGS) product will be offered to customers in the Little Rock, Louisville and Memphis zones. This product is currently offered in the St. Louis zone with a cash letter fee of $8, a per-item fee of $0.25 and a 12:01 a.m. deadline. This Sort will allow customers to consolidate HDGS sends into a single deposit with their local office, thereby reducing sorting requirements. It will also allow depositors who do not currently take advantage of the Fed's HDGS program to accelerate credit availability on select out-of-zone RCPC endpoints. The $8 cash letter fee will be the same for all four zones. The per-item fees are $0.23 for Little Rock, $0.22 for Louisville and $0.24 for Memphis. The deadlines are 11 p.m. for Little Rock, 2:30 a.m. for Louisville and 12:01 a.m. for Memphis. Contact your local account executive for additional information on these new products. (Toll-free numbers are listed on the back page of Payments Quarterly.) Little Rock Announces Deadline Changes Effective Sept. 25, the Little Rock Office will change the deadlines for its Forward and Return Collection Mixed and Other Fed products. All early deadlines will be eliminated and a new 11 p.m. Monday – Thursday deadline will be established for all of these products. The 9:15 p.m. Monday –Thursday Consolidated deadline will be eliminated and a new 11:30 p.m. Monday – Thursday Consolidated deadline will be established for Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, as well as for RCPC and Country deposits. A 12:30 a.m. Monday – Thursday Consolidated deadline will be established for City and HDGS deposits. For complete information on endpoints and availability, contact Kim Peters at (501) 324-8251. Check Standardization Efforts Underway Check standardization efforts continue throughout the Federal Reserve System, with a focus on national and local products for Forward and Return Collection. A national work group was given the responsibility of establishing uniform product names, product definitions and billing codes. To date, the products have been reviewed, classified, named and defined. Work continues on a review of billing codes. This project builds upon the Electronic Check Product (ECP) standards and definitions implemented in April 2000. These changes, scheduled for implementation in January 2001, will help alleviate confusion for financial institutions that conduct business in multiple Fed districts. We're at Your Service In an effort to further develop relationships with financial institutions in the Eighth District, the St. Louis Fed will continue to evaluate its products and services and develop offerings that meet its customers' needs. In other words, we're listening!