October 08, 2009

Restructuring of check processing operations in the Fourth, Eleventh, and Twelfth districts, Regulation CC

For immediate release

The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday approved amendments to Appendix A of Regulation CC that reflect the restructuring of the Federal Reserve Banks' check-processing operations, and provided notice relating to future changes to the regulation.

Appendix A provides a routing symbol guide that helps depository institutions determine the maximum permissible hold periods for most deposited checks. On October 17, 2009, the Reserve Banks will transfer the check-processing operations of the head office of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas to the head office of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. On November 14, 2009, the Reserve Banks will transfer the check-processing operations of the Los Angeles branch office of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco to the head office of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.  To ensure that the information in Appendix A accurately describes the structure of check-processing operations within the Federal Reserve System, the amendments delete the references in Appendix A to the Dallas head office and the Los Angeles branch office and reassign the routing symbols listed thereunder to the Cleveland head office. To coincide with the effective dates of the underlying check-processing changes, the amendments are effective October 17 and November 14, respectively.

The Federal Reserve Banks initially announced in November 2008 their plan to transition to a single paper-check-processing site, and the Reserve Banks recently reaffirmed their intent to complete this transition by the first quarter of 2010. The Reserve Banks are taking these steps in response to the continued nationwide decline in check usage, as well as the rapidly increasing use of electronic check-clearing methods, and to position themselves more effectively to meet the cost recovery requirements of the Monetary Control Act of 1980. For the information and planning needs of banks, the Board is today providing notice that, assuming check volumes continue to evolve in line with the Reserve Banks' expectations, the Reserve Banks intend to change their check-processing infrastructure such that by early next year there will be only a single check-processing region for purposes of Regulation CC. Accordingly, at that time there will no longer be any checks that would be considered nonlocal.

The Board's notice is attached.

Federal Register notice: 52 KB PDF | HTML

Last Update: October 08, 2009