Timing is everything (just ask the dinosaurs): Final timing rules on Reg. J and ACH

by: Jane Pannier

Effective Date: July 23, 2015 for the Reg. J and policy changes and for the policy changes related to the posting and debiting of check and ACH transactions to financial institutions’ accounts and December 5, 2014 for the policy revisions to the principles for establishing future posting procedures for same-day ACH service and services for U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banking organizations.

Overview

Did you know that, had the timing been different, dinosaurs might have survived the asteroid that eliminated their species? Or so says a paleontologist from Edinburgh University, Steve Brusatte. Brusatte believes that the asteroid hit “at a bad time,” and that if the asteroid “had hit a few million years earlier, or a few million years later, then dinosaurs probably wouldn’t have gone extinct” (source).

If the asteroid hadn’t hit, you and I might not be here. Bad news for dinosaurs; good news for us.

Clearly, timing is everything. The Federal Reserve Board agrees and has taken two actions that affect the timing of check settlements. The first action is a final rule that amends Subpart A of Regulation J. Regulation J governs the collection of checks and other items by the Federal Reserve Banks, the handling of returned checks and the transfer of funds through Fedwire. In the second action, the Fed has adopted revisions to Part II of its policy on payment systems risk (PSR policy) that defines the procedures for measuring balances intraday in the accounts that institutions maintain at Federal Reserve Banks.

 

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