November 4, 2008

To help financial institutions assess their ability to accept new format and processing requirements under the new SEC code for international ACH transactions (IAT), the Federal Reserve Banks will begin offering IAT testing on November 4, 2008.

IAT test files can only be exchanged through authorized ACH Sending and Receiving Points. Sending Points will be able to view test results or status using FedACH Information Services available via the FedLine Web access solution. For receipt testing, Receiving Points will be able to receive files for any one or all of the institutions for which they are authorized. Each IAT test receipt file will consist of four transactions containing all mandatory fields and a mixture of optional IAT addenda records. If an institution does not maintain an electronic connection to the Federal Reserve, FedACH Central Operations Support will help coordinate testing with their authorized Sending or Receiving Point.

Institutions can schedule testing on-line at: http://www.frbservices.org/HomePage/app/fedachTestRequest.jsp