Check processing before check 21 legislation Term Paper

Check processing before check 21 legislation - Term Paper Example k 21 legislation, previous law was made in a way that banks were forced to accept â€Å"Presentment† that was a unique check made of paper before transferring funds to other accounts. The old Check processing system was exceedingly slow comparing to the electronic system and customers had to wait for their Check clearance for two to three days (Bauer and Gerdes). The check clearing process before legislation 21 was complicated as it requires Federal Reserve to receive Checks from banks where they have been deposited, sort them in an organized manner, adding the amount of payment for deposited banks and delivering Checks from where there were drawn. This was the main source of income for Federal processing as forward items used to generate profits. Before legislation 21, paper Check accounted for more than 60% of the noncash payment in the year 2000. The Federal Reserve System used to process large number of paper Checks physically, but even before the emergence of legislation 21, the paper Check processing was declining because of its complications. The customers used to face different types of problems before this legislation, and they were not properly secured against unauthorized payments of paper Checks (Wheelock and Wilson). This legislation brought new measures of safety that the previous system was unable to implement. There was a fra ud case for Hauser Contracting Co. in which a thief obtained Check of stock that was used for paying employees. He made many Checks of payroll and withdrawal more than $24,000. These types of fraud were particularly common when paper Checks was used by the banks (Abagnale). The banks previously were not used to give any canceled Checks back to the customer, and they were only able to see the documents of Checks that were paid. Another disadvantage of the previous system was that banks were not able to processed claims made for paper Checks and they used to take more time for investigation. The electronic Check system after