We are the ODFI for an originator that meets the definition of a 3rd party sender under NACHA rules. We have a client that works with several third parties (payday lenders) to process the third party billings. The originator (our customer) creates a batch ACH file which includes lots of receivers (all US banks, no IAT's).
We have done our due diligence with our customer (as a deposit customer, a 3rd party sender, done due diligence on the parties our customer is processing for including an OFAC check).
My question is this - Do we have responsibility as the ODFI to check each of the receiver names included in the batch file?
I don't think we do as that's the responsibility of the RDFI. Our responsibility with these files would be if any of them are returned (R16), then we'd need to check against OFAC.
I understand that nothing needs to be checked against the OFAC list - it's dictated by the bank's risk assessment. We are not in a high risk area but the mere fact that our customer is acting as a 3rd party sender for payday lenders around the country and the receivers are also all around the country makes me a little nervous. I firmly believe we've done good due diligence on our customer and the 3rd parties, just not the receivers.
However, if it's the responsibility of the RDFI to run the receiver names against OFAC, I'd sure feel a whole lot better. Our OFAC possible hit list has grown quite long recently with false positives since our customer started being a 3rd party processor. Our report shows both incoming and outgoing ACH items.