Check Processing Region Changes
By Amy Kudlacek
Back in mid-July we wrote a blog about the Federal Reserve's consolidation of check processing regions. In that blog we stated that the Federal Reserve's goal was to have one check processing region located in Cleveland by the end of 2010. This timeframe was inaccurate (it should have stated by the end of 2009 - see the blog correction we issued a couple days later). Then the Federal Reserve issued a progress report on July 31, 2009, stating the process should be complete by the first quarter of 2010.
As the majority of our clients are located in the Midwest, we wanted to alert you and make sure you were aware of the following check processing region change:
On September 12, 2009, the Reserve Banks will transfer the check-processing operations of the head office of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago to the head office of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. As a result of this change, some checks that are drawn on and deposited at banks located in the Chicago and Cleveland check processing regions and that currently are nonlocal checks will become local checks subject to faster availability schedules.
According to the Fed's financial services website, the Dallas check processing region will transfer to Cleveland on October 19, 2009. The transition dates for the Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Atlanta check processing regions have not been formally announced.
With all these changes coming up, things will be a little crazy for awhile!