Mary Beth, what does this check 21 od to the Funds Availability? does this change things with that, or will things stay the same there?????????

I'm not Mary Beth, but funds availability will remain unchanged for now. The Fed is required by the Act to report to congress the impact of Check 21 on clearing times, within 30 months of the effective date. So sometime in early 2007, we'll all be gathered around BOL discussing possible changes to our funds availability schedules.

Check 21 has no direct effect on Funds Availability. That check you take from across the country will still be a non-local check whether it travels all the way there in paper form or takes the speedier electronic route.

There are two ways in which Check 21 may indirectly affect availability, though.

• As truncations catches on and fewer physical checks are handled by the Fed's check processing centers, we could see another wave of RCPC consolidation. That could make the "local check" area larger, just as is the case with the current consolidation.
  
  
• The Fed is charged in Check 21 to report to congress on the efficiencies that will have (or not) been realized under Check 21. While the Fed itself might not try messing around with the 2 and 5 day structure of Regulation CC, congress might decide to do so if the Fed's report shows that more items are being presented faster and less fraud is occurring.