FedACH® Services Business Continuity

Overview - Disruption to Federal Reserve FedACH Services

The Federal Reserve’s Automated Clearing House service, known as FedACH, is a nationwide electronic network that facilitates the exchange of funds and payment-related information between financial institutions, the U.S. Treasury and other Reserve Banks. The ACH system is a batch processing, store and forward system. ACH processes both debits and credits in a net settlement fashion after files are received. This is in contrast to the real-time gross settlement processing of the Fedwire® services. Access to FedACH is available via various channels including: DOS-based FedLine, Bulkdata, FedLine Web®, FedLine Advantage® and FedLine Direct®.

You may view the current status of FedACH processing at any time.

Disruptions to FedACH services will typically entail two scenarios:

Central Application Disruptions

The Federal Reserve has centralized its electronic mainframe applications into various sites. Complete back-up is available at each site to support electronic connections to critical applications, including FedACH. In the event of an application outage involving FedACH, the processing of ACH files and the associated financial accounting entries may be delayed, with services resumed as quickly as possible in the back-up site.

Building Outages

In the case of events rendering buildings inaccessible, the FedACH application should not be impacted. Geographically dispersed back up facilities will be prepared to handle operational functions while personnel relocate to the alternate processing locations.

Preparing for FedACH Services Disruptions

Financial institutions are encouraged to become familiar with the Federal Reserve’s FedACH business continuity plan. To minimize a disruption of service, financial institutions are encouraged to implement the following:

  • Conduct periodic training to ensure personnel are familiar with the information included in the plan.
  • Identify key personnel to communicate with Federal Reserve personnel and disseminate information as quickly as possible during service disruptions.
  • Have the business continuity plan and contact information readily available for access by appropriate personnel during service disruptions.

Financial institutions with electronic communication connections to the FedACH service are invited to participate in FedACH application contingency tests. During these tests, customers test their ability to reconcile and resume processing of their transactions following a FedACH application recovery simulation.

For detailed information regarding the resilience of FedACH, please review the FedACH Resilience Statement (PDF).

For more information about contingency planning, please review the Customer Planning for FedACH Contingency Options Guides for FedPhone (PDF) and FedMail (PDF).

Customer Planning for FedACH Contingency Options Guides for FedLine Web and FedLine Advantage are available via the EUAC Center.

During a FedACH Services Disruption - What to Expect

If you suspect a disruption to FedACH operations, it is not necessary to contact us. Be assured that the Federal Reserve and its personnel are working diligently to reinstate service as quickly as possible.

During an Account Service Disruption - What You Should Do

  • Notify all pertinent personnel at your institution of the outage.
  • Refer to the FedACH Status page to obtain the current operational status and other instructions.

If a disaster occurs during midday processing, financial institutions should attempt to reconcile at the file level, to the point of failure before additional files are transmitted.

For Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections over the Internet service disruptions

Financial institutions do not need to do anything to re-establish communications. Once host processing is restored, communication connections will be re-established, with all data security procedures remaining in effect. These connections will be automatically re-routed if personnel are required to relocate to alternate locations. You may experience a short temporary pause as processing is switched to the alternative site.

For dedicated electronic (leased) connection service disruptions

Financial institutions do not need to do anything to re-establish communications. Once host processing is restored, communication connections will be re-established, with all data security procedures remaining in effect. Dedicated connections will be automatically re-routed if personnel are required to relocate to alternate locations.

For Dial FedLine service disruptions

Financial institutions do not need to do anything to re-establish communications. Updates and instructions will be provided via recorded messages, fax, and/or direct telephone calls.

For Voice Communication service disruptions

Financial institutions do not need to do anything to re-establish communications. Recorded messages will be prepared advising of the situation and instructions for further communications.

Note: Upon the restoration of electronic connections, if financial institutions cannot complete a normal connection, they should contact their FedACH Central Operations Support site:

Contact Information
Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, Richmond Districts
(866) 234-5681 / (404) 498-8902
achoperations.atl@atl.frb.org
Dallas, Kansas City, Minneapolis, St. Louis, San Francisco Districts
(888) 883-2180
mpls.achcustserv@mpls.frb.org

After a service disruption

  • All input and output files and voice response return items should be retained for possible retransmission.
  • All out-of-balance transactions should be retained until reconcilement is possible and completed. At the resumption of service, account balances will be based on Federal Reserve records. It is the responsibility of the financial institutions to resend ACH files previously sent but not shown on Federal Reserve records.

Caution: Financial institutions should not complete cycle-day rollover on DOS-based FedLine until advised that the Federal Reserve is ready to resume new-day processing. Completing cycle-day rollover too early may cause all “day of” contingency information to be lost.

Recovery Timeframe for FedACH Services

Disruptions to FedACH services are categorized into two levels:

Level 1 – Same day resumption of services: this disruption level is expected to be in effect for a period not exceeding 8 hours. FedACH services are expected to resume during the same accounting day.

Level 2 – Relocation of Federal Reserve operations: this disruption level is expected to last for more than 8 hours. It may require the relocation of personnel to back-up sites.

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