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FedACH Risk® RDFI File Alert Service Frequently Asked Questions Frequently Asked Questions

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What is the FedACH Risk RDFI File Alert Service, and How Does It Work?

How Does the FedACH Risk RDFI File Alert Service Benefit our Institution?

What Is the Pricing for the Service?

How Do We Sign Up?

What are the Thresholds and E-mail Alerts?

What is the FedACH Risk RDFI File Alert Service, and How Does It Work?

Q:What is the FedACH Risk RDFI File Alert Service, and what does it do?

A: RDFI file alert is the latest addition to the Federal Reserve Banks’ suite of FedACH Risk Management Services, joining risk returns reporting and risk origination monitoring.

This new service allows an RDFI, to monitor its incoming FedACH® files against certain criteria before posting/memo posting the payments.

With RDFI file alert, you can use three criteria to define what you believe to be extraordinary conditions at the FedACH file level. The three criteria are a debit threshold, a credit threshold and/or an item/addenda count (file size) threshold. You can monitor for extraordinary conditions by setting debit and/or credit dollar value thresholds and/or by setting file size thresholds (item and addenda count), which will apply to all files which contain your RDFI batches.

When FedACH distributes a file that contains your RDFI’s batches that together exceed your file thresholds, FedACH sends notice to e-mail addresses that you have designated. The e-mail notifies designated e-mail recipients that a file has exceeded one or more of the thresholds and directs the recipients to FedACH Information Services for detailed batch level information.

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Q:How does the file alert service work?

A: By accessing FedACH Information Services, you enter alert e-mail contacts and alert thresholds. The file alert service will monitor each file distributed by FedACH and containing your RDFI batches against your specified thresholds. If the cumulative debit amount and/or credit amount and/or item/addenda count (size) of your batches contained in a single outgoing FedACH file exceeds your thresholds, FedACH sends an alert e-mail at the time of file distribution to your designated e-mail addresses.

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How Does the FedACH Risk RDFI File Alert Service Benefit our Institution?

Q: What are the benefits of the service?

A:The service helps you protect your bank and your customers from the consequences of large errors and possible originator fraud.

If a file exceeds established threshold(s), the service sends an e-mail at the time of FedACH file distribution to designated e-mail addresses. Alerts may be sent earlier in the day than you, or your receiving point, typically process FedACH payments. This can give you earlier warning of potential problems and provide time to research and take corrective action, such as returning an erroneous transaction, verifying the amount, or confirming transactions with your receiver.

The service allows you to proactively manage incoming ACH files, positioning you to detect problems and act on them before receiving calls from customers or before having to fund your Federal Reserve account.

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Q: How does RDFI file alert help our bank manage its Federal Reserve account balance?

A: The RDFI File Alert Service allows you, the RDFI, to establish threshold dollar values for incoming FedACH files. FedACH creates files prior to the posting of the settlement to your Federal Reserve account and sends any alert e-mails to your designated e-mail contacts at the time of file distribution. If you receive a file exceeding your thresholds, the service alerts you to the condition, making you aware of potential significant value impact to your Federal Reserve account.

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What Is the Pricing for the Service?

Q: What is the price of the service?

A: The service is included at no additional charge as part of FedACH Information Services via the FedLine Web® or via FedLine Advantage® access solution. You will need to take several easy steps to activate the service.

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How Do We Sign Up?

Q: How do we sign up for the service?

A: To use the service, you will need to subscribe to FedACH Information Services via the FedLine Web or FedLine Advantage access solution. Once your institution has access to the FedACH Information Services screens, you sign up for the service by submitting Attachment J of the FedACH Participation Agreement, which you can obtain from your FedACH Sales Specialist or FedACH Central Operations Support Site or find at http://www.FRBservices.org/forms/fedach_services.html. If you are unsure of your FedACH sales representative or Central Operations Support Site’s contact information, you can find it on My FedDirectorySM at http://www.FRBservices.org/contacts/index.jsp.

What are the Thresholds and E-mail Alerts?

Q: Why would we want to set a threshold for transaction (item and addenda) count?

A: Item/addenda count is a proxy for the size of a file. While the best indicator of significant impact to the RDFI will be the dollar value, an abnormal file size can be an indicator of fraud or an indication of a large error. Identifying this condition early may prevent a customer service issue.

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Q: How many alert e-mail contact addresses can we set up in the service?

A: The RDFI File Alert service allows you to define up to five e-mail addresses. E-mail addresses may be within your institution and may include those of your FedACH processor. If more than five contacts are required, you can send the message to a shared e-mail address for distribution to a group.

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Q: What information is contained in the alert e-mail?

A: Alert e-mail is generated by the service when a threshold is exceeded. This e-mail identifies the file in question by file id modifier and provides information about the file. This information includes the debit and credit dollar value of the file, the number of item/addenda contained in the file, the active thresholds used to trigger the notification, and the file identifier. The e-mail provides links to direct someone with access to the FedLine Web screens where more information about batches can be found.

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Q: When would an alert e-mail be sent to our contacts?

A: FedACH distributes alert e-mails when a FedACH file exceeds one or more alert thresholds. FedACH creates four files per day and, in addition, receiving points can request a file on demand. Whenever an outgoing (output) file is created, the service will compare the totals of the batches contained in the file associated with your RDFI RTN to the threshold values. The alert e-mail will only be sent when a dollar value or item/addenda count exceeds thresholds you have defined.

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Q: What types of thresholds can we set for the alert criteria?

A: The RDFI File Alert Service allows you to monitor your incoming FedACH files at the file level. Thresholds can be set for debit and/or credit dollar value and/or for transaction (items and addenda) count. Once thresholds are set, all batches associated with your RDFI RTN contained in the outgoing file will be summarized at the file level for debit and/or credit value and/or item/addenda count. The same thresholds apply to all your files and to all of your receipt points. A threshold value of zero means any files exceeding a cumulative debit, credit and/or item/addenda count value greater than zero will trigger an alert. A blank threshold value mean files will not be monitored for value and/or count. The service sends an alert e-mail if one or more threshold values are exceeded.

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Q: What guidance is available to help us select our thresholds?

A: One consideration for the RDFI is how many alerts you want to receive in a day. If you choose low thresholds, you may receive many alerts. If you choose high thresholds, you may receive only a few alerts but might miss being alerted to issues warranting attention. To help you set reasonable thresholds, FedACH Information Services provides historical data about file size. You can use the "Search for Batch " feature in FedACH Information Services on the FedLine Web access solution. This feature shows the debit and credit values and the item/addenda count for all files received for the last 10 business days. The information is available to download into a spreadsheet for compilation and review. This is one way to determine what the value and volume of a "normal" file might be for your RDFI. A tutorial for the “Search for Batch” feature is available at:
http://learn.frbservices.org/fedach/filealertservice/rdfi_searchforbatch.htm

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Q: How will the service use the thresholds to determine when to alert us?

A: The RDFI File Alert Service allows you to monitor FedACH files at the file level. Once thresholds are set, all batches associated with your RDFI RTN contained in the outgoing file will be summarized at the file level for debit and/or credit value and/or item/addenda count. The service will send an alert e-mail when a threshold value is exceeded.

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Q: Once alerted to a file exceeding a threshold, how do we view the contents of the file?

A: You will receive an alert e-mail to notify you of the file that exceeded an alert threshold. The e-mail will contain a file id modifier. You will use the file id modifier to search for "Received" files within the "Search for Batch" screens of FedACH Information Services. If a file contains more than the current 2,000 batches per search limitation, you will need to use search criteria such as SEC code to partition the file into smaller parts more suitable for the FedLine Web display.

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