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#373563 - 06/15/05 10:07 PM "FedLine Advantage"
lisa Offline
Gold Star
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 264
Gainesville, TX USA
Are any of you guys out there using FedLine Advantage? We are in the process of getting it operational and would appreciate any comments.

Thank you,

lbezner@f-s-b.com

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eBanking / Technology
#373564 - 06/16/05 02:45 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
Anonymous
Unregistered

We are also in the "multi-step" process and would love to hear from anyone...

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#373565 - 06/16/05 07:48 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
AnnL Offline
Gold Star
AnnL
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 334
Western PA
We are in the testing phase and it looks pretty go so far. One warning if you haven't looked at ACH do so soon. The FRB has eliminated transaction level entries such as auto-enrollment and deriving a return. We have no problem with the returns but the enrollment is causing an issue. Our core processor does not currently support ENR in their ACH Origination option so we are looking for a solution. They are looking into adding the SEC code but who knows when or if that will happen.
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#373566 - 06/26/05 08:24 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
BankLogic Offline
New Poster
BankLogic
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 15
Pittsburgh, PA
As someone who has installed FedLine Advantage at some banks and performed IT audits for banks that are currently running FedLine advantage, I have a caution which I expressed to the Fed and I'll limit my comments so I don't compromise what they consider confidential information.

There are banks that permit their employees to take their USB tokens home for disaster recovery purposes. The reasoning is that if the main office blows up, they can use the token at a branch office that is a configured FedLine Advantage workstation. I'm not a fan of this procedure although (as I learned) there currently is no guidance saying a bank can't do this. Under a certain set of conditions where the bank is also permitting VPN access for remote users, it's possible to pull up a FedLine Advantage session offsite. Not good.... My recommendation is that tokens should be locked up after use at a bank site.

I would also add that small banks who contract with a 3rd party for firewall/network maintenance or who have one employee who handles the firewall without anyone knowledgeable reviewing the firewall logs for firewall ruleset changes, should have someone independent perform an annual IT vulnerability assessment that includes a review of the firewall ruleset in place and the firewall policy. The reason is you want to make sure the IP addresses management wants to be included in the FedLine Advantage VPN are the only IP addresses being permitted. In addition if you allow employees to VPN into your bank, you want to be sure that the internal IP addresses being handed out are not the same as the ones with the Fed VPN.
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#373567 - 06/28/05 04:32 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
RandomName Offline
Diamond Poster
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 1,373
Austin, TX
Quote:

The FRB has eliminated transaction level entries such as auto-enrollment and deriving a return. We have no problem with the returns but the enrollment is causing an issue.




Good to know. I guess the Fed is taking a flexible interpretation of "early 2005" from their blurb below:

"Q: With none of our software vendors offering ENR origination capabilities, is there another way to process these transactions?

A: The Treasury Green Book provides information related to how Federal payment recipients canenroll for Direct Deposit without visiting a financial institution. These details, known asSimplified Enrollment, can be found in the Automated Enrollment - Section 1 of the Green Book. The GreenBook can be accessed online from the following URL:http://www.fms.treas.gov/greenbook. Please note that an ENR feature is expected to be available on the FedACH FedLine Web service in early 2005."

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#373568 - 07/12/05 09:05 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
HappyGilmore Offline
10K Club
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 19,854
Pulling people out of the ditc...
Quote:

There are banks that permit their employees to take their USB tokens home for disaster recovery purposes. The reasoning is that if the main office blows up, they can use the token at a branch office that is a configured FedLine Advantage workstation. I'm not a fan of this procedure although (as I learned) there currently is no guidance saying a bank can't do this




BL - as someone who lives in an area of the country that often sees major flooding due to hurricanes, having this token at a building the employees can't get to does not help me in a disaster recovery mode. In the event the employees can get to another location, without this token card, I'm dead in the water. And, since the Fed, in their infinite wisdom, has said that no user will be permitted 2 cards, I choose the lesser of 2 evils, and will allow, no I will mandate, that users take these token cards home.

Also,as long as you set the bank to dual control, you have less risk.
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#373569 - 07/13/05 12:51 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
Anonymous
Unregistered

Have you guys any opinion on the implementation of the Fedline Advantage Program? I've been dissapointed with the whole process. We haven't had any local training seminars or sessions available to us in Boston (that I could find). It pretty much leaves us with trying to learn on our own...

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#373570 - 07/16/05 02:47 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
BankLogic Offline
New Poster
BankLogic
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 15
Pittsburgh, PA
Quote:

BL - as someone who lives in an area of the country that often sees major flooding due to hurricanes, having this token at a building the employees can't get to does not help me in a disaster recovery mode. In the event the employees can get to another location, without this token card, I'm dead in the water. And, since the Fed, in their infinite wisdom, has said that no user will be permitted 2 cards, I choose the lesser of 2 evils, and will allow, no I will mandate, that users take these token cards home.

Also,as long as you set the bank to dual control, you have less risk.




It would be better if you had a branch workstation set up with FedLine Advantage and kept a token locked up at the branch rather than have employees taking them home. That's been one of my recommendations to the Fed.
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#373571 - 07/16/05 02:52 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
BankLogic Offline
New Poster
BankLogic
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 15
Pittsburgh, PA
Quote:

Have you guys any opinion on the implementation of the Fedline Advantage Program? I've been dissapointed with the whole process. We haven't had any local training seminars or sessions available to us in Boston (that I could find). It pretty much leaves us with trying to learn on our own...




I've heard disappointment with the implementation but the users at banks I'm at really seem to like it. I think it's a good product (although the Fed needs to issue some guidelines)
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#373572 - 07/18/05 06:06 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
HappyGilmore Offline
10K Club
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 19,854
Pulling people out of the ditc...
Quote:

It would be better if you had a branch workstation set up with FedLine Advantage and kept a token locked up at the branch rather than have employees taking them home




BL - great idea, except Fed won't issue 2 tokens to one individual. And, since wires are dual control, having only one at a branch won't work. Of course, you could spend $400 to have 2 backup tokens for 2 users at that branch, and then you run the risk of users who never use the system of being responsible in a contingency situation.

Sadly, FRB once again took steps that they thought should be taken, rather than allowing the banks to implement standards based on their own risk assessments.
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#373573 - 07/19/05 05:33 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
BankLogic Offline
New Poster
BankLogic
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 15
Pittsburgh, PA
Quote:


BL - great idea, except Fed won't issue 2 tokens to one individual. And, since wires are dual control, having only one at a branch won't work. Of course, you could spend $400 to have 2 backup tokens for 2 users at that branch, and then you run the risk of users who never use the system of being responsible in a contingency situation.





OK I'm with you on that.... I should've added what you mentioned.

Quote:


Sadly, FRB once again took steps that they thought should be taken, rather than allowing the banks to implement standards based on their own risk assessments.




While I see some disappointment with the implementation and guidance of FedLine Advantage, I think they had to come with the standards.
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#373574 - 07/19/05 05:35 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
HappyGilmore Offline
10K Club
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 19,854
Pulling people out of the ditc...
They built it based on their closed operating environment of the Federal Reserve, not the real world of banking. There is a huge difference between the 2.
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#373575 - 07/20/05 04:16 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
BankLogic Offline
New Poster
BankLogic
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 15
Pittsburgh, PA
Happy,

If you mean that the Fed has shrouded some things in secrecy as part of their security, I would agree. And as a huge open source Linux guy, I think if your security is good, you shouldn't be afraid to lay it all out there.

What would you have done different? I've got a document you'd probably love to read. If you want to correspond offline, my e-mail addie is out there.
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Remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

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#373576 - 08/02/05 06:46 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
Anonymous
Unregistered

The Electronic Payments Network (EPN) offers a Windows-based automatted enrollement software package. The package works in a standalone, multi-user or branch environment. A derived return fee of $.50 can add up quickly.

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#373577 - 08/03/05 12:29 AM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
Anonymous
Unregistered

kkl

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#373578 - 08/03/05 03:46 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
Anonymous
Unregistered

What is the derived return fee for? I looked on the EPN website and didn't have any luck with finding the software. Does anyone have any other recommendations? One option available thru treasury is to sign up via the phone. The disadvantage here is that the customer has to make the call.

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#373579 - 09/19/05 02:48 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
Anonymous
Unregistered

Visit the on-line store on the EPN website under software. The derived return fee of $.50 is for every return generated by using Fedline Advantage system for returns .

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#373580 - 09/19/05 06:13 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
Barbl Offline
Junior Member
Barbl
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 30
PA
We are currently fully into using Fed Advantage for Checks, Cash, ACH - we use another software product for origination & preparing returns - Funds Transfers & Securities. The Learning center section of Fed Advantage is helpful with training although if you had Fedline DOS, things are somewhat similar in Advantage, just a windows environment versus DOS.

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#373581 - 09/27/05 02:47 AM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
Anonymous
Unregistered

There is one vendor I came across at http://www.ezdd.com that is offering the ability to create ENR files.

Hope this helps.
Susan

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#373582 - 12/23/05 07:40 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
M.A. Kopan Offline
New Poster
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 1
I am looking into utilizing FedLine Advantage to perform ACH transactions in the Healthcare industry. MyriadHealth is a new startup that will be processing healthcare claims and doing electronic payments from groups to an intermediary (transfer ) bank and then disburse payments to providers when acknowledgement of transfer is verified. Our system will export the ACH X12 flat file, then we can have the Fedline software do the transfer. We are also using Microsoft BizTalk to orchestrate the processes. Can you give us some additional information on the usage the FedLine Advantage ACH process with this business model application?

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#373583 - 12/28/05 08:33 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
ETH Offline
Member
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 88
We have been using Fedline Advantage for at least 6 months and we love it! Much easier than the DOS terminal.

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#373584 - 01/16/06 06:18 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
IamNoBanker Offline
New Poster
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 12
I actually setup Fedline Adv. for two banks. They seems to like better than DOS. What we did is IP lock down. Basically only selected IP can get onto Fedline Adv website. and setup a camera pointing those workstation it only looks "good", but can't catch much. And only selected few employee could take the token home, even with remote access (VPN) they still need to be on that selected workstation. of course with dual control all should be well.
best of luck in this crazy world.

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#373585 - 01/24/06 03:51 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage"
Doxie Pride Offline
Junior Member
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 39
Has anyone purchased the EZ Direct Deposit product to use for ENR? Seems like a good deal at just $199.

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#1400263 - 06/07/10 04:12 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage" HappyGilmore
IslandBank Offline
Member
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 50
MA, US
Just wondering if you have ever tested the ability to connect to FedLine remotely (from employee's home)and if it worked. I have an employee who is starting to work offsite via VPN. No matter what we try, it appears impossible to actually login in to FedLine as it appears the system recongnizes the fact that the employee is in fact offsite even though the IP address is internal to the network. The Fed has confirmed that they are aware of this and that no fix exists to their knowledge.

Thank you.

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#1401637 - 06/09/10 09:43 PM Re: "FedLine Advantage" IslandBank
HappyGilmore Offline
10K Club
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 19,854
Pulling people out of the ditc...
we sign in remotely from our DR site 3x a year with no issues. I have signed in from home.
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