Fed Sends Checks ThroughSVPCO

NEW YORK - (02/10/06) – The Federal Reserve is nowsending images to financial institutions via SVPCO-Image PaymentsNetwork, one of three major check clearing networks. The Fed sentits first images to National City Bank through Image PaymentsNetwork and has received check images from 10 banks. In addition tothe Fed, EDS, a third-party service provider, and 12 of the largestbanks, including Bank of America, Fifth Third, HSBC, KeyCorp.,M&T Bank, National City Bank, JP Morgan Chase and Wachovia, areusing the Image Payments Network. All financial institutions thatexchange images directly with each other via the Image PaymentsNetwork use the automatic settlement function, which providesreal-time net and bilateral settlements.