When Bank A has an expedited recredit claim for a consumer and they want to submit a claim, who would Bank A send their claim to? The reconverting bank or the bank they received the item from? To me, it would be logical to go directly to the reconverting bank since they are the one that created the substitute check. Am I right?
What about if Bank A received a bad image - would Bank A go directly to the truncating bank? I am not a check operations person so I am having trouble understanding the claims procedures. Any help will be appreciated.

Both the reconverting bank and the bank that presented the substitute check to your institution are liable to the drawee bank under the warranty and indemnification provisions. Assuming they are different institutions, you do have a choice as to which one you assert a claim against.

The reconverting bank would seem to be the most logical target, because they presumably have an agreement with the truncating bank and should be the quickest route to obtaining a better copy or even the original check. However, it has yet to be established what kind of treatment banks will afford one another on the claims process. You might choose to go back to the bank that presented you with the substitute check because you have an ongoing relationship with them and might expect better treatment.

(If a logical decision was made about how to present the item for payment, in forward presentment it is likely that the reconverting bank will also be the bank that presented the item to you.)

Thank you for your answer Ken. I hope logic does prevail!

Ken, what about the environment where the bank has a 3rd party processor (which is not a bank) who converts the checks? The processor is considered the convertor, but I don't think they have any liability.

When a 3rd party processor truncates or creates a substitute check on behalf of Bank A, the liability claims can be made against Bank A. Of course, Bank A itself may have an agreement with the 3rd party contractually and collect from the processor, but from Bank B's perspective, Bank A is liable.

It's the same as processing non-bank substitute checks - the Check 21 liability is assumed by the first bank to touch the substitute check.

Okay, here is a really dumb question...but I have no back-end operations experience. How do you know which bank in the collection process converted the check into an IRD? I did some training this morning and the Data Processing mgr asked how to tell who converted the check and I didn't know this answer.

It appears on the subsitute check above the legal legend off to the left of the check image. It has their routing number and creation date on it.

Thanks Joker!