Checks from Canada

Can anyone tell me how to determine which checks can be run through Fed? We have a customer who deposited a check drawn on a Canadian bank, therefore it did not have a routing number. We were uncertain if it had to be sent for collection but discovered that we had previously sent one through as a regular deposit and did not have it returned. Any clarification on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

We have processed canadian checks drawn on canadian banks and had them returned also. The general rule of thumb we have followed is checking the ABA number, if it is a valid Fed ABA number we have run it with no problem, although it is a canadian check, it is drawn on a US correspondent bank. If it is not a valid US ABA number, we send it for collection.

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That was my understanding and I know we had a check returned at one time that was drawn on a bank in Canada. However, we have also accepted checks from Canada that were not drawn on a bank in the U.S., did not have a valid ABA #, and were not returned to us. I am not sure how that works but would like to be able to explain to our customer when we would have to send a check for collection.

If you are depositing checks through a correspondent bank, they may be sending them in for collection. You might want to contact your accounting department as they should be getting adjustments due to the exchange rate differential on Canadian checks.

David,
We are not depositing them through a correspondent bank so I can rule that out. The checks have the wording "U.S. Funds" but the # at the bottom is not an ABA #. I guess I need to go ahead and call Fed to see if I can get an answer there. I was just hoping maybe someone out there has run up against the same thing. Thanks for your reply.

Checks drawn on a Canadian Bank without a US routing in the MICR line will not process and must be sent as a collection item. Some may have a payable through routing number and paid in the US. This is more of a draft than a check, and its still good practice to send as a collection item.

If you have sent a check that will not route in your normal transit, its possible that the Fed debited the banks account and returned the item (or lost it) in such a manner that operations personel may not have known what to do with it. Have you checked the Suspense Account lately.

Fed automatically clears Canadanian postal money orders (Canada Post) as the U.S. and Canadian postal services have an agreement to clear each others money orders.

You can sign up through Fed to clear foreign items; we did this a couple of months ago by contacting our FRB acct rep. Of course they charge out the wazoo for it (per item and per letter cost) but we simply pass the cost onto our customers. We get a notice from Fed that we have deposited a foreign item, and if there is a difference in the exchange rate we get charged/credited for that and we of course debit/credit our customer for that also. The Fed notificaiton is the only way we would know if we deposited a foreign item and can look it up in the myriad of reports we have to see which customer deposited the item. We have a lot of Canadian tourists in our area and we were almost forced into providing this service for whitewater rafting companies.