Have any of you run in to electronic checks that have been sent to a customer via email, the customer enters identifying information, retrieves the check, prints it out on paper and then takes it in to their financial institution for deposit.

Deluxe offers this type of service described here: http://www.deluxe.com/echecks/faq/

Here is how they describe the recipient deposit procedures:

Deluxe eChecks arrive via email with a special code so that the recipient can retrieve the check. The recipient simply prints the check and deposits it in the same way they deposit traditional checks.


Has anyone run in to issues with these items (multiple deposits of the same item)?

I'm bumping this post. We've had a customer that was interested in utilizing this service for his business (not with our FI) and we were skeptical about the checks and the process.

Is anyone accepting these checks for deposit? Are you offering the product via Deluxe?

I'm wondering the same myself. I just found out about this through Deluxe and it doesn't seem to fit into the definition of "Electronic fund transfer using information from a check" under Reg. E. Any thoughts on this? Which regulation applies, etc?

Since these would not be MICR encoded, I would refuse to accept them because depending on your processing system you may have to special handle each one. Did the requirement that all checks meet MICR encoding requirements go away and I missed it??

Oh, and since these are physical items, they would not be covered under Regulation E.

thank you rlcarey... I would send you a copy and paste of what was sent to me from our Risk Manager but I can't seem to do that in this forum. This is a link to the Deluxe site, if you're curious to see what they say. https://www2.deluxe.com/email-checks?&s_kwcid=MARIN_21151|mkwid|soyPsmCMQ|pcrid|54011090751|pdv|c|pkw|deluxe%20echecks|pmt|e| The sample of the check on the website seems to have a MICR. Perhaps the customer provides the MICR when they sign up for echecks. I'll have to look into this further.

Originally I thought this would be covered under Reg. E's electronic check conversion but as I read more, I see that it isn't and would seem to be covered under the rules a regular paper check would be covered.

If I find anything of interest or value to add to this thread I'll definitely pass along what I find out.

Just because it is MICR-formatted doesn't mean it's actual MICR ink involved. And clearly, if it's printed out by the email recipient in most cases it won't use MICR ink. Many check sorters do have OCR capability that can read and work with the non-magnetic MICR characters. It's a valid check, but the real question is whether you can process it.

In today's check processing environment, where so many checks are imaged and truncated at the depositary bank, whether magnetic ink is used or not isn't as important if the depositary bank's equipment or procedures can get the needed characters into the electronic record with the image of the check.