We have a title co who writes a check from an escrow acct to put into a clearing account to send a wire for the purchase of a home. There is also a check for the wire fee. Can the title co just complete an on-line wire from the escrow acct and the bank take the fee also?

Customers can use on-line banking to transfer $ to another bank (might be their own account or someone else's - if they have the correct info). Our bank processes those ACH transfers each night. Do we need some type of agreement with those customers? Haven't they become originators? How will we know if they are doing it?

BUMP! I still could use some help with this. I can't seem to find anything.

An ACH transaction is different than a wire. If you allow customers to originate ACH transactions you should have an agreement with them that addresses that type of activity. Your core system should produce reports of ACH origination activity.

I don't think you could legitimately charge them a 'wire fee' if they were not truly sending a wire transfer.

The title company is writing a check for the wire and a check for the fee and depositing them into a "clearing account" that they own. They send us the wire instruction; then, we take the funds out of the clearing account and wire them and take the fee out as income. Is that more clear? The question is whether the title company is subject to wire fees when the funds held in the escrow account are for third parties?

The escrow account money is not theirs so that may not be possible from their end. They are probably paying the wire fee out of separate funds.

Thanks very much. I thought that might be the case just as any interest paid should be passed on to beneficial owners.