A missing "2" is causing some corporates fee headaches

<p>WASHINGTON – Whether it’s problems with sorters at the corporates or at the Fed, corporates are working to put an end to fees they are incurring from the Federal Reserve for missing or incorrect MICR line data for check returns. The Association of Corporate Credit Unions has formed a task force made up of eight corporates to look at this issue. The Fed is charging $10 per check if that check has a missing number or a mistake in one of the positions on the MICR line. As the industry’s payment processors, ACCU Executive Director Gigi Hyland said corporates process millions of items and some have been incurring some hefty fees based on these Fed charges. Hyland said the problem corporates have is not with being charged for a mistake they make on their end, but that they can’t find the mistake. She said that about 90% of the checks that the Fed has charged corporates on for MICR problems, the Fed has determined that a “2″ is missing in position 44. However, the corporates say that the “2″ is being read correctly by their sorters. “Some calibrations (to the sorters) have been done, but this issue keeps cropping up,” said Hyland. Corporates are wondering if this is just a matter of different kinds of sorters making different readings. Late last month ACCU held a conference call with several corporates being hit with these fees. ACCU then contacted Fed officials and has learned that the Fed recognizes the problem and is in the process of issuing additional guidance to Federal Reserve Banks within the next month or two.</p>