Fedwire® Services and National Settlement Service Vendor Sponsorship for Testing or Access to Technical Documentation
Sponsorship by Depository Institution
The Federal Reserve Banks require that each vendor that requests to test its service or software product in the testing environment for Fedwire Services and National Settlement Service via the FedLine Direct® Solution, or to access related technical documentation, be sponsored by a depository institution.
On behalf of the FedLine Direct vendor, the sponsoring depository institution must submit the Sponsorship Agreement for Federal Reserve Financial Services (PDF), completed and signed by both the sponsoring depository institution and the vendor, to the Support Center, as indicated on the form.
Access to Technical Documentation
After the sponsorship agreement is processed, the Federal Reserve Banks can provide the sponsoring depository institution and the vendor with access to the Fedwire Application Interface Manual (i.e., proprietary Fedwire message format specification document) or other technical documentation.
Testing Certification Process
Once the vendor and sponsoring depository institution are ready to test a service or product, the Wholesale Testing Unit (WTU) will be the primary contact for Fedwire Services and National Settlement Service testing certification(s) and will provide the Federal Reserve Bank-prescribed test script for the appropriate service.
As part of the testing certification process, the vendor and its sponsoring depository institution must:
- Ensure connection to the Federal Reserve Banks’ Depository Institution Test (DIT) environment;
- Successfully complete the Federal Reserve Bank-prescribed FedLine Direct test script in the DIT environment (e.g., send and receive properly formatted messages or upload properly formatted settlement files, receive notifications, broadcasts and reports sent by the Federal Reserve Banks); and
- Successfully complete Saturday Operational Readiness Test (ORT) in the production environment.
Note: For Fedwire Services, a vendor acting as a service provider must successfully complete the FedLine Direct test script in the DIT environment and a Saturday ORT in the production environment together with each depository institution that uses the vendor’s service.
Material Change
Vendors are required to retest and recertify their service or software product in the DIT and production environment when a new version of software for operating the product or service is implemented or when a change to the hardware platform on which the product or service runs is made.