Expansion of operating hours and associated changes for the Fedwire® Funds Service and National Settlement Service Effective March 8, 2021
February 5, 2021
This communication provides important information related to the National Settlement Service and Fedwire Funds Service and should be delivered to individuals at your institution who need to be aware of these changes.
As previously announced (Off-site), effective March 8, 2021, the Federal Reserve Banks will expand the National Settlement Service closing time to 6:30 p.m. ET from 5:30 p.m. ET, the Fedwire Funds Service third-party cutoff time to 6:45 p.m. ET from 6 p.m. ET and the Fedwire Funds Service closing time to 7 p.m. ET from 6:30 p.m. ET.
Also, effective March 8, 2021, the following changes will be implemented:
- The value threshold for granting an extension of the operating hours of National Settlement Service and the Fedwire Funds Service will increase from $1 billion to $3 billion.
- The Federal Reserve Banks will modify their practice of maintaining a two-hour window between the closing and the reopening of the Fedwire Funds Service to maintain only a 90-minute window.
- The Federal Reserve Banks will discontinue their current practice of opening the Fedwire Funds Service at 8:55 p.m. ET for processing online payment orders and instead will begin to process online payment orders at the published opening time of 9 p.m. ET.
- For offline Fedwire Funds Service messages, the third-party cutoff time will be expanded to 6:15 p.m. ET from 5:30 p.m. ET and the settlement cutoff time will be expanded to 6:30 p.m. ET from 6 p.m. ET.
- The Federal Reserve Banks will no longer publish details regarding the operating hours and extension criteria for the Fedwire Funds Service and National Settlement Service in Operating Circulars 6 and 12, respectively. Instead, the operating circulars will refer to the operating hours and extension criteria posted on the FRBservices.org® website. Please reference the updated operating hours and extension criteria for the Fedwire Funds Service and National Settlement Service.
Revised Fedwire Funds Service Message Format Document available on SWIFT’s MyStandards® website
The Federal Reserve Banks have posted to their private page on SWIFT’s MyStandards website the updated version of the Fedwire Application Interface Manual (FAIM) for the Fedwire Funds Service (version 3.0.6). The updated FAIM reflects the expansion of the Fedwire Funds Service operating hours as well as other changes. If you have not yet requested MyStandards access for authorized individuals at your institution, please contact your account executive.
Please direct any questions to your designated Wholesale Operations Site or your account executive.