Full text of Electronic Currents : March 1995, Volume 6, Number 1

The full text on this page is automatically extracted from the file linked above and may contain errors and inconsistencies.

■

March 199S
News and Views
on
~· Electronic Services

Expect Changes in Fedline, EDITH Deadlines
for Entering TT&L Advices of Credit

1995NACHA
Rules
Changes
Announced


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

') Approximately 80? corpo) rate taxpayers nationwide-those with annual
employment taxes of more
than $78 million-were
required to submit their tax
payments electronically
through a financial institution or a Treasury fiscal
agent effective Jan. 1, 1995.
The directive was a first in
a six-phase plan to convert

the current paper-based tax
payment system to electronics
by the year 2000. The second
phase of the electronic tax
initiative-affecting those
corporate taxpayers with
employment taxes in excess
of $47 million-will take
effect on Jan. 1, 1996.
Currently, financial institutions have three alternatives for
initiating electronic payments:

ACH Credit, ACH Debit or
Fedwire Funds Transfer.
Beginning April 1, 1995, the
Electronic Tax Application
and a new non-value Fedwire
Funds Transfer message will
also be available for institutions to submit tax payment

B eginning April 14, 1995,
seven ACHA rules changes
will take effect. Financial institutions are encouraged to review
the complete description of
the changes included in the
1995 edition ofACH Rules: A
Complete Guide to Rules and
Regulations Governing the
ACH Network. For your convenience, a summary of the
amendments follows.

funds available to consumers
at the opening of business on
settlement date for PPD credit
entries which the ACH operator
has made available by 5 p.m.
local time on the banking day
prior to the settlement date.
The rule defines "opening-ofbusiness" as the later of 9 a.m.
local time or the time its teller
facilities-including ATMsare available for customer
account withdrawals. This
definition is consistent with
Regulation CC. One additional
note: Though this rule requires
funds to be made available to
the consumer for withdrawal or

cash withdrawal at the opening
of business on settlement day, it
does not specifically include
withdrawals from ATMs.

Opening of Business
Availability on
Consumer PPD Credits
The receiving financial institution (RDFI) must make

(See Deadline, back page)

Affidavit
Requirements and
Time Limitations
An RDFI must obtain a signed

written affidavit from a receiver
prior to returning an entry as
R10 (unauthorized) or as R07
(authorization revoked). The
originating financial institution, or ODFI, may request a
copy of the affidavit within one
(See NACHA, back page)

Fedline's Spring Training Begins Soon
Below are the training sessions scheduled for the second quarter of 199 S.
Date

Class

Location

April 10

Fedline ACH Origination Training

St. Louis

April 11-13

Fedline Training

St. Louis

April 25-27

Fedline Training

Memphis

May9

Fedline ACH Origination Training

Memphis

May 10-12

Fedline Training

Memphis

May 16-18

Fedline Training

St. Louis

June 13

Fedline ACH Origination Training

St. Louis

June 14-16

Fedline Training

St. Louis

June 20-22

Fedline Training

Memphis

Take Time

B

Now To

Save Time
Later


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

y the end of last year, all of
our Fedline customers had
converted to the 800 number
connecting them to Fed services via the new consolidated
National Dial Center (NDC).
The NDC will support dial line
speeds up to 14.4 kbpswhich reduces your overall
connect time.
The faster modem speed is
now available for any customer

using the AT&T Paradyne 3820
modem. In addition, new
modems currently being delivered by AT&T have been configured to connect at the 14. 4
kbps speed. If you've had a
modem for some time, however,
chances are you're still connecting at 9600 bps. To check
your speed, watch the modem
display during a host communication. At some point, the
display will show either ONLINE:
9600 or ONLINE: 14.4.
If you are connecting at
9600 bps and would like to
have your modem reconfigured to connect at 14.4 kbps,
you have two options: One,
you may call AT&T at 1-800237-0016 and request that the
new configuration be down-

As a reminder, the introductory Fedline training sessions
last three days-one-half
day for Local Security Administration (LSA) training and
two-and-a-half days for Fedline
training. The ACH Origination
sessions are one-day sessions
for current Fedline customers.
Each financial institution may
send two staff members to a
training session.
For cost information, or to
register for a class, please contact Customer Access Support
at (314) 444-8680 or toll-free
at 1-800-333-0869.

loaded to your modem. Be sure
to have your model number,
serial number and modem
telephone number handy. Or,
call us at (314) 444-8711 or
toll-free at 1-800-333-0861
and press "l" for Customer
Access Support. Ask the Fedline
support staff member to help
you reconfigure your AT&T
Paradyne 3820 to connect at
14.4 kbps. We'll walk you
through the change, which
takes about five minutes.

ELECTRONIC News Briefs
Thanks Again
The following customel'S volunteered their time and pe®nnel to
participare in theJan. 7c6ntingency
test- the only test held during the
first quarter of this year. Man)
thanks to all who participated.
Magna Bank; Belleville IL
Mark Twain Bank St. Louis. MO
Old ~ational Bank; Evansville, L'
City Bank and Tmst Company

of ~loberly: 1ober1y. MO
Pine State Bank; Kingsland. AR
.\1idwest Independent Bank:
Jefferson City, .\10
If you would like to participate in
future tests, please call Barb Mettille
of Customer A~ Suppoit at
(314) 444-8711 or toll-free at
1-800-333-0861.


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Fed Introduces
Improved Dial-Out
Service
The Fed's Dial-Out Overnight
Manager (DOM) service enables
the Fed's host computer to call
your Fedline terminal overnight.
DOM was just introduced in
late 1994, but already there is
a way to make it even more
convenient and secure for our
customers to use.
We now offer the flexibility to
choose a pecific timeframe or
window during which the DOM
service will transmit trafficmessages and files-to your
Fedline terminal. For even
more security, there are also
options available under Host
Communications to store
messages.
Remember, it's easy to take
advantage of this free service:
• leave your Fedline terminal
on overnight with the
"Fedline Local Sign On"
screen showing. We uggest
turning the monitor down
so the screen appears blank;
• have a compatible modem;
and
• have a dedicated telephone
line.
To sign up for the DOM
service, or for more information, please contact Customer
Access Support at (314) 4448711 or toll-free at 1-800333-0861.

Coming Soon ...
Fed ACH
Later this year, the Federal
Reserve will begin the transi-

tion of each district's individual
ACH software to a centralized
ACH software, Fed ACH. A
schedule for converting each
district will be announced soon.
Good things are in store after
the Eighth District has converted to Fed ACH: Customers
will be able to request additional deliveries of ACH items
"on-demand."

Attention
local Security
Administrators
By now all Fedline and
Flashlight®Local Security
Administrators should have
received new host user codes
(HUCs) which conform to a
standard format-HnXXXSy;
where:
H = the FRB Eighth District
identifier
n = the Eighth District office
identifier:
1 = St. Louis office
2 = Little Rock office
3 = Louisville office
4 = Memphis office
XXX = the user's initials

In addition, after all of the
Fed districts have converted,
we'll offer customers many
new features, including continuous-flow processing as
well as quick online acce so
you can trace items and file
or request remakes. You 'll
also be able to view the most
current information on the
Commercial Receiver File
(CRF) as well as your own
customer profile.
As with any major software
conversion, our plan is to
ensure a smooth transition
by providing information
well in advance of changes.
So keep an eye out for customized bulletins that will
include specific information
you'll need to prepare for the
changes, as well as how to
take advantage of the new
features. Bulletins can be
identified by a purple version
of the logo you see above.

5 or 6 = an indicator that
the HUC belongs to a financial
institution user, and
y = a numeric tie-breaker in
case of duplicate initials within the host ystem.
IIUCs that do not conform
to these standards will be
removed from the system in
the next few months. If any
Fedline users at your institution do not have a standard
HUC, please call Data Security
at (314) 444-8711 or toll-free
at 1-800-3 33-0861.

Deadline
(continued from front page)

information for their customers.
Each new option has a deadline
of 2 p.m. local time as determined by the Reserve Bank's
head office.
Regardless of when your
institution is required to

NACHA
(continued from front page)

year, and the RDFI must respond
to that request within 60 days.

Single-Entry Reversals
The authorization requirement for single-entry reversals
has been eliminated.
Wording for Sixty-Day
Right-of• Adiustment
The language describing the
timeframe for an RDFI to
return an adjustment entry for
an unauthorized consumer

submit tax payments electronically, Fedline®and EDITH®
customers will be directly
affected by the following deadline change. As a result of
accepting electronic tax payments until 2 p.m., we will also
extend until 2 p.m. the deadline for entry of the Advice of

Credit through EDITH and
Fedline effective April 1, 1995.
Please note that this later closing
will prevent advance staging of
the next day's Advices of Credit
until later in the day, at approximately 4 p.m.
If you have any questions
about the electronic tax payment

system or payment options,
please call Kathy Stogner at
(314) 444-8987 or toll-free at
1-800-333-0810, ext. 8987.

transaction was modified to be
consistent with the description
for return timeframe deadlines.

include the return of unauthorized corporate credits.

you, your customers and other
financial institutions.
If you have any questions
about these changes, contact
John Hargett at (314) 444-8713
or toll-free at 1-800-333-0810
ext. 8713.

Self-Audit Procedures
for Funds Availability
The funds availability section
of the self-audit procedures was
changed to include the new rule
for opening-of-business availability of consumer PPD credits.
Unauthorized
Corporate Credits
Return reason code R23 has
been clarified and renamed to

Contributors to this issue include: Gary Auer, Susan Hackney.John Hargett,
Gloria Harlan, Mary Kuni and Barb Mettille.

■

Post Office Box 442
St. Louis, Missouri 63166

Volume 6, Number 1
Electronic Currents is a publication of the Federal
Reserve Bank of St. Louis and its Little Rock, Louisville
and ~lemphis branches designed to infonn Eighth
District financial institutions of electronic access
issues, products and services.
© 1995 by Federal Reserve Bank of St. Loui .
Al l rights reserved. Please address all comments,
questions, topic suggestions. requests for additional
copies or penni ions to reprint to: Frank Blacharczyk.
Financial Services Sales and Support, at the address above.


https://fraser.stlouisfed.org
Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Notifications of
Change
An RDFI is now able to identify
itself in the Notification of
Change format when it purchases branches or accounts
from another RDFI.
By applying the ACHA rules
to your operation, you can
reduce processing errors as well
as improve the quality and efficiency of the ACH system for