For immediate release

The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday announced the publication of a guide to help consumers better understand their rights and responsibilities with regard to electronic check conversion transactions. The guide, "When is Your Check Not a Check? Electronic Check Conversion," discusses what electronic check conversion is, how consumers can tell if their check will be electronically converted, some of the differences between a regular check transaction and electronic check conversion, consumers' rights in an electronic check conversion transaction, and what consumers can do if they have problems with such transactions. In an electronic check conversion transaction, a consumer authorizes the use of a check to obtain information for initiating an electronic debit from the consumer's account. "When Is Your Check Not a Check?" covers electronic check conversion at the point of sale as well as when the consumer has mailed a check to a company that uses electronic check conversion. The guide also provides a checklist for consumers to use before and after an electronic check conversion transaction, and items to review when they receive their account statements from financial institutions. Print copies of the guide are available from Publications Services, Mail Stop 127, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington, DC 20551. The first 100 copies are free. The guide is also available on the Board's web site at http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/checkconv/. A PDF (Portable Document Format) version is provided on the web site so that consumer groups, financial institutions, and retailers can download and print copies for distribution to their clients and customers. It includes a space on the back panel for organizations to provide their own contact information.

2002 Banking and consumer regulatory policy | 2002 Other announcements