For immediate release

The Federal Reserve Board today announced a five-hour extension of the Federal Reserve Banks' automated clearing house (ACH) "regular" billing deposit deadline. ACH operates 24 hours a day. Effective October l, l997, the "regular" processing window will begin at 3:00 a.m. Eastern Time and close at l:00 a.m. rather than 8:00 p.m. The fees assessed to Federal Reserve Bank customers during this "regular" billing period are 0.9 cents per-transaction and a file fee of $1.75 for files of transactions up to 2,500 transactions, and 0.7 cents per-transaction and a file fee of $6.75 for files of transactions over 2,500 transactions. The new "premium" hours will be between l:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. Eastern Time, and the transaction surcharge assessed during this period will remain 0.5 cents on each ACH item deposited with the Reserve Banks. The change will reduce fees charged to customers originating ACH transactions by approximately $2.1 million annually. This is the fourth time the Federal Reserve has reduced its ACH fees in the past twelve months. These price reductions reflect the efficiencies the Federal Reserve is realizing from its centralized ACH processing environment.

1997 Banking and consumer regulatory policy