Check 21 Duplicate Notification Service

The Image Industry Interoperability Group (i3G), a bank-driven Check 21 industry collaborative, introduces the Check 21 Duplicate Notification Service that will provide the opportunity for check processing organizations to more efficiently communicate and effectively resolve issues related to duplicate file events.

The service, which leverages the Federal Reserve Bank’s FedMail® Service, enables industry-wide communications capability, allowing organizations subscribing to FedMail to provide timely notice and contact information about duplicate file events to other FedMail subscribers. All organizations currently subscribing to the FedMail Service can take advantage of the service.

This resource center will help your organization learn more about the benefits of the Check 21 Duplicate Check Notification Service, step-by-step instructions on subscribing to the FedMail Service and the set-up process, and the means to access  the application to send or receive notification regarding duplicate events.

We will continue to add information to this resource center, so please check back regularly for the latest news and updates. For your convenience, add the resource center to your “my Quick Links.”

Service Description

The Check 21 Duplicate Notification Service offers an industry best practices approach for communicating among check image industry participants – providing expeditious notification of a duplicate event.

The Check 21 Duplicate Notification Service provides the opportunity for a FedMail subscriber depositing bank that creates a duplicate situation to easily notify affected FedMail subscriber paying banks. The service is designed to help increase the efficiency of the payments industry while minimizing costs and ultimately helping to eliminate some of the barriers to realizing the efficiencies of straight-though processing.

The Check 21 Duplicate Notification Service is recommended for use when incidents result in 50 or more duplicate items.

The Federal Reserve Banks are providing this service enhancement at no cost to the depository institutions on a best-efforts basis. By using this enhanced service, your institution agrees that the Federal Reserve Banks have no responsibility for the content of a notification submitted by a sender, and the Federal Reserve Banks have no liability to a receiver with respect to any notification, whether such notification is sent to the receiver or whether the Federal Reserve Bank fails to send a notification requested by a sender.

Notification Process 

FedMail subscribers can send and receive notifications to and from other FedMail subscribers in the event a Check 21 duplicate situation occurs. A depositing institution (sender) that created the Check 21 duplicate situation can easily notify impacted paying institutions (receivers) that a duplicate situation has occurred. Senders will be prompted to enter information including, ABA (RTN), number of items, dollar amount and contact information into the Check 21 Duplicate Notification Service online form. A spreadsheet (template provided) detailing the receiver’s ABA, summary number of items and total dollar amount will need to be provided to complete the request. The Federal Reserve Banks, acting as an intermediary, will capture the duplicate notification information and perform a validity check of the source of the notification. The Federal Reserve Banks will then use FedMail to distribute the notification to affected paying institutions (receivers) that subscribe to FedMail.

The Federal Reserve Banks, acting as an intermediary, will capture and disseminate the duplicate notification information via the FedMail Service across the industry to the paying banks (receivers) that are impacted by the duplicate event. After accepting the request and completing due diligence to verify the validity of the notification, the FedMail Service will distribute the notification to affected paying institutions (receivers) that subscribe to the FedMail Service.

The paying institutions (receivers) affected by the duplicate item event that are also FedMail subscribers will be sent a notification indicating that their institution was involved in a duplicate item situation provided the depositing institution (sender) is a FedMail subscriber and utilizes the notification service. This notification will include summary information about how they were affected along with contact information for the depositing institution. Upon receipt of the notification, the receiver can take appropriate action with the deposition institution (sender).

More Information

Check 21 Duplicate Item Notification Service Fact Sheet (PDF)

My organization would like to initiate notification of a duplicate check event

My organization would like to subscribe to FedMail

Check 21 Duplicate Notification Service Frequently Asked Questions

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