UPDATED: Treasury Checks for Economic Impact Payments and Treasury Check Verification Application
May 1, 2020
This notice updates the Treasury notice transmitted on April 20, 2020. Some valid Treasury economic impact payment checks will display check symbol 45001 in the MICR line instead of displaying 40381 or 40414 as mentioned in the April 20, 2020 notice. Note that check symbols 40381, 40414 and 45001 may be displayed on economic impact payments checks, as well as certain non-economic impact payment checks.
The April 20, 2020 notice also indicated that the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service (Fiscal Service) generally anticipates Friday pay dates for each weekly batch of checks. Non-Friday pay dates will also occur. ACH payments generally have a pay date of the Wednesday after the payment is transmitted, but in some cases, will be transmitted throughout the week with non-Wednesday pay dates.
As a reminder, the Treasury Check Verification Application is a tool to help the financial industry verify U.S. Treasury checks. Treasury released enhancements to TCVA on April 24, 2020. These enhancements include extended availability and new batch processing capabilities as described below.
Fiscal Service has also posted some frequently asked questions about economic impact payments (FAQs) online at https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/news/useful-covid-19-links.html (Off-site). Fiscal Service will update these FAQs as needed when there is new information to provide.
NOTICE: Treasury Checks for Economic Impact Payments and Treasury Check Verification Application
Treasury Checks for Economic Impact Payments: Fiscal Service began printing and mailing economic impact payment checks, beginning with checks with a pay date of April 24, 2020, and weekly thereafter. While check pay dates will typically be Fridays, other pay dates are possible. Checks are being mailed daily after beginning on Saturday, April 18, 2020, until the checks are delivered, with twice-daily mail pick-ups beginning Monday, April 20, 2020. Estimated check volume is approximately 5 million to 7 million checks per week.
The Treasury check for an economic impact payment will be the same as the Treasury check for a tax refund payment, except that the check will have identifying text in the memo field stating “Economic Impact Payment” on the first line and the President’s name on the second line. As usual, the checks will be signed by a Fiscal Service disbursing official. The check symbol will be 40381, 40414 or 45001 and will be displayed in the MICR line.
A sample image of the front of economic impact payment is available at:
U.S. Treasury Check Security Features: Financial institutions can also learn more about the security features of U.S. Treasury checks at https://tcvs.fiscal.treasury.gov (Off-site).
Treasury Check Verification Applications Enhancements: Fiscal Service has made enhancements to its Treasury Check Verification Application (TCVA). As of April 24, 2020, TCVA has extended availability to support queries from Sunday 1:00 pm to Saturday 11:59 pm EST.
TCVA is a tool to help the financial industry verify U.S. Treasury checks, and may be found at https://tcvs.fiscal.treasury.gov (Off-site).
TCVA provides single-query search capability for financial organizations, providing one of four results based upon a given Symbol, Serial Number, Dollar Amount and Routing Transit Number:
- U.S. Treasury Check was issued for the amount entered.
- U.S. Treasury Check has already been paid.
- The amount entered does not match Fiscal Service records.
- No match.
NOTE: TCVA is unable to provide assurance that the check being presented is genuine (not counterfeit) or that it is properly payable. Check information is not provided in real time and may not reflect that a check has already been presented for payment and is in process.
As of April 24, 2020, Fiscal Service also allows financial institutions to obtain the same information provided by TCVA’s single-query search capability described above through an application programming interface (API) instead, when preferred.
For more information about TCVA’s capabilities, please visit https://tcvs.fiscal.treasury.gov (Off-site) or contact Fiscal Service at (855) 868-0151 option #1 or paymentintegrity@fiscal.treasury.gov.