Fedwire® Funds and Fedwire Securities® Services Business Continuity

Overview - Disruption to Federal Reserve Fedwire Funds Service

The Fedwire Funds Service, owned and operated by the Federal Reserve Banks, provides a centralized, electronic, real-time, gross settlement system (RTGS). RTGS means that the Fedwire application processes and settles transactions individually as they occur. Participants use Fedwire to send payments to other Fedwire participants. During a typical transaction the sending participant initiates the funds transfer message. The Fedwire application: (1) authenticates the sender, (2) edits the message for proper syntax, (3) debits the payment amount from the sender’s reserve account and credits the same amount to the receiver’s reserve account, (4) sends an acknowledgement to the sender to confirm the outgoing payment, and (5) sends an advice to the receiver for notification of the incoming payment. Payments processed over Fedwire are final and irrevocable.

The Reserve Banks have a number of procedures in place to ensure the resilience of the Fedwire services, including out-of-region back up facilities for the Fedwire applications and all integral support and related functions. The Reserve Banks routinely test Fedwire business continuity procedures across a variety of contingency situations to ensure timely resumption of Fedwire operations in the event of a local, regional, or widespread disruption. The Fedwire applications and recovery procedures are enhanced on an ongoing basis.

Preparing for Fedwire Funds Service Disruptions

  • Computer Interface customers should ensure that staff is familiar with the Endpoint Grand Totals report and the Terminal Totals report generated by your system, and reconciling these reports on a regular basis.
  • Bookmark the Fedwire Status page and refer to it regularly.
  • Participate in contingency tests, as appropriate, to practice reconciliation in the DI testing environment.
  • Maintain a current list of authorized individuals with primary and contingency telephone numbers on file with the Wholesale Operations Site.
  • Ensure that the codeword list to which you should have access has been acknowledged.
  • Review the Federal Reserve Discount Window National Business Continuity page (Off-site Link) to learn more about contingency funding resources available through the Discount Window.

For more information about contingency planning, please review the Fedwire Offline Services as a Contingency Alternative Quick Reference Guide.

During Fedwire Funds Service Disruption - What to Expect

Procedures are in place to ensure the resilience of the Fedwire applications, which includes recovery to the point of failure. To aid depository institutions (DIs) in the reconciliation process, the following reports should be used:

  • Endpoint Grand Totals. This report gives a current summary of your activity for the day. If you process traffic from multiple Lterms, you will receive one report for each Lterm. This report lists the debits, credits, and the associated message counts of incoming and outgoing transfer messages. In addition, the total number of service, rejected, or skipped and/or not received messages, as well as the next expected incoming and outgoing sequence numbers, are indicated.
  • DI Reconciliation (Gaps) Report. This report contains a list of interspersed unprocessed incoming and outgoing sequence numbers (i.e. gaps) for each Lterm. This report is only produced for DIs that show gaps in their sent or received sequence numbers.

During a Fedwire Funds Service Disruption - What You Should Do

Communication

  • Notify all pertinent personnel at your institution of the outage.
  • Refer to the Fedwire Status page to obtain the current operational status and other instructions.

Reconciliation

  • Gather internal documentation to aid in determining if all transactions sent and received before the outage were processed by Fedwire. Reconcile internal documentation with the Endpoint Grand Totals report to determine which transactions sent and received have been processed.
  • “Lost or unprocessed” messages will most likely be the last messages sent or received before the disruption. However, unprocessed messages may also be interspersed among the messages sent or received.
  • The transactions that were not processed by Fedwire must be re-sent with a Possible Duplicate Message (PDM) indicator. PDM transactions use the same Lterm and input sequence number (IMAD) as the original transaction.
  • The originator must re-send messages not recovered, regardless of whether they were acknowledged prior to the contingency situation.
  • It is critical that you reconcile to the point of failure before additional messages are entered into the system.

For a copy of step-by-step reconcilement procedures contact your Wholesale Operations Site. Computer Interface customers should contact their vendors for more information about resetting sequence numbers and sending PDMs.

Recovery Timeframe for Fedwire Funds Service

Fedwire Resilience

For detailed information regarding the resilience of Fedwire, including information on Fedwire Data Centers, Fedwire Technical Support Personnel, Fedwire Contingency Testing, and Customer Responsibilities, please review the Fedwire Resilience Statement (PDF).

Fedwire Status

Throughout the business day, you can view operational information and updates through the Fedwire Status page. This information includes opening time, operational status, information regarding extensions, and closing time. You should become familiar with this status page on a regular basis, as this is the location where important information regarding the Fedwire service will be posted following a disruption.

Overview - Disruption to Federal Reserve Fedwire Securities Service

The Fedwire Securities Service, owned and operated by the Federal Reserve Banks, provides a centralized, electronic, real-time, gross settlement system (RTGS). RTGS means that the Fedwire application processes and settles transactions individually as they occur. Payments processed over Fedwire are final and irrevocable. All securities are held and transferred in book-entry form. Securities transfers may occur with or without the simultaneous debiting and crediting of funds. Security transfers with a payment are referred to as delivery-versus-payment (DVP). Each DVP transfer message results in a securities debit to the sender and a securities credit to the receiver; simultaneously, funds are credited to the sender and debited from the receiver.

The Reserve Banks have a number of procedures in place to ensure the resilience of the Fedwire services, including out-of-region back up facilities for the Fedwire applications and all integral support and related functions. The Reserve Banks routinely test Fedwire business continuity procedures across a variety of contingency situations to ensure timely resumption of Fedwire operations in the event of a local, regional, or widespread disruption. The Fedwire applications and recovery procedures are enhanced on an ongoing basis.

Preparing for Fedwire Securities Service Disruptions

For more information about contingency planning, please review the Fedwire Offline Services as a Contingency Alternative Quick Reference Guide.

During a Fedwire Securities Service Disruption - What to Expect

Procedures are in place to ensure the resilience of the Fedwire applications, which includes recovery to the point of failure. To aid depository institutions (DIs) in the reconciliation process, the following reports should be used:

  • Endpoint Grand Totals. This report gives a current summary of your activity for the day. If you process traffic from multiple Lterms, you will receive one report for each Lterm. This report lists the debits, credits, and the associated message counts of incoming and outgoing transfer messages. In addition, the total number of service, rejected, or skipped and/or not received messages, as well as the next expected incoming and outgoing sequence numbers, are indicated.
  • Terminal Totals. This report is generated by your vendor software. It should show the same information as the Endpoint Grand Totals; however, the count for messages sent may be higher if some transactions were not processed and recovered by Fedwire after the outage.
  • DI Reconciliation (Gaps) Report. This report contains a list of interspersed unprocessed incoming and outgoing sequence numbers (i.e. gaps) for each Lterm. This report is only produced for DIs that show gaps in their sent or received sequence numbers.

During a Fedwire Securities Service Disruption - What You Should Do

Communication

  • Notify all pertinent personnel at your institution of the outage.
  • Refer to the Fedwire Status page to obtain the current operational status and other instructions.

Reconciliation

  • Gather internal documentation to aid in determining if all transactions sent and received before the outage were processed by Fedwire. Reconcile internal documentation with the Endpoint Grand Totals report to determine which transactions sent and received have been processed.
  • “Lost or unprocessedrdquo; messages will most likely be the last messages sent or received before the disruption. However, unprocessed messages may also be interspersed among the messages sent or received.
  • The transactions that were not processed by Fedwire must be re-sent with a Possible duplicate messages (PDM) indicator. PDM transactions use the same Lterm and input sequence number (IMAD) as the original transaction.
  • The originator must re-send messages not recovered, regardless of whether they were acknowledged prior to the contingency situation.
  • It is critical that you reconcile to the point of failure before additional messages are entered into the system.

For a copy of step-by-step reconcilement procedures contact your Wholesale Operations Site. Computer Interface customers should contact their vendors for more information about resetting sequence numbers and sending PDMs.

Recovery Timeframe for Fedwire Funds Service

Fedwire Resilience

For detailed information regarding the resilience of Fedwire, including information on Fedwire Data Centers, Fedwire Technical Support Personnel, Fedwire Contingency Testing, and Customer Responsibilities, please review the Fedwire Resilience Statement (PDF).

Fedwire Status

Throughout the business day, you can view operational information and updates through the Fedwire Status page. This information includes opening time, operational status, information regarding extensions, and closing time. You should become familiar with this status page on a regular basis, as this is the location where important information regarding the Fedwire service will be posted following a disruption.

Contact Information
Boston, Cleveland, Dallas, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis
(800) 327-0147 / (617) 973-3722
Atlanta, Chicago, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Richmond,
San Francisco
(800) 333-2448 / (816) 881-2448

Top of Page