Payment System

EAPSHC Adopted ACH Definitions

General Definition of ECH Terms

The following are adopted definitions of the terms used in the ECH but were not defined in the BIS;

1)     Appointed Member a member of an Electronic Clearing House (ECH) who has been appointed as an agent of the non participating member to the ECH.

2)     Clearing Days this refers to the days during which the process of transmitting, reconciling and in some cases confirming payment order of security transfer instructions prior to settlement, possibly including netting of instructions and establishment of final position for settlement when it take place.   The clearing days are counted from the day of lodging the cheque at the bank which is referred as ‘T” and this is added to the number of days the cheque would be processed in the clearing house ( i.e T + No. of days)

3)     Corrupt Data Files means, an electronic file that contains data which is either wholly or partly unreadable, or incomplete or contains meaningless characters that cannot be interpreted by either the ECH or the ECH member banks’ computer system thus rendering it un-processable by either the ECH or the ECH member banks' computer system.

4)     Discrepancy Files means a clearing file that contain details of missing and free items. These also include items whose amounts in the physical items do not correspond with the amount in equivalent item in the electronic record. Differences between Settlement File and the Electronic Journal File, Electronic Fund Transfer and Discrepancy File for one clearing session are also recorded in the discrepancy files.

5)     Drawee’s Bank means a bank or branch of the person to whom the cheque is drawn. 

6)     Drawer’s Bank means, a bank or branch of the person who issues the cheque to pay the amount mentioned therein (also referred as the paying bank or branch).

7)     Electronic Clearing House means a defined place where representatives of member banks meet at specified times, to exchange instruments, electronic information and calculate the net balances against each other.

8)     Electronic Journal File Means an electronic data file containing details of cheques exchanged or presented and re-presented by banks in the clearing house, at a clearing session.

9)     Electronic Fund Transfers File means a clearing file that contains electronic direct debits and credits, fines, commissions and charges exchanged by banks in the clearing house.

10) Endorsement means the printing or writing of information on the rear of the cheque or voucher for various reasons, by the holder or issuer of the cheque or voucher in the course of transferring or processing the cheque or voucher.

11) High Value Items means instruments that are equivalent to or above a defined amount.

12) Member means a licensed bank, which participates in a clearing House.

13) Paying Bank means a bank that has been ordered to effect a payment instruction.

14) Special Clearing means an arrangement whereby a collecting bank sends cheque(s) direct to the paying bank for immediate clearance.

15) Settlement Files means an electronic file that contains a summary of details for the Clearing House of the payment transferred to each of the other banks for a particular clearing session and currency

16) Settlement Certificates means a certificate issued by the Clearing House to indicate the settlement position (balance) of each bank at a particular clearing session.

17) Value date means the date when the cheque proceeds are credited on the payee’s account.