After President Trump signed the COVID-19 economic relief bill Sunday night, bankers should expect to see ACH transactions for the $600-per-person economic impact payments begin arriving as soon as tomorrow, Dec. 29. More than 100 million files are expected to be routed to banks in the coming days with an effective payment date early next week, according to sources. Checks and prepaid cards will be mailed to recipients that have not provided their bank routing information to the Internal Revenue Service. The Treasury Department is expected to release more detailed information soon.
The American Bankers Association has advised banks to have call center and ACH operations staffing levels ready for the influx of EIPs, as well as ordering and moving sufficient cash to meet a surge in ATM and branch withdrawals as EIPs land in customer accounts over the coming days. ABA has also updated its background documents to reflect the signing of the relief bill.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (which will process the EIPs on behalf of the Treasury Department) and the Federal Reserve will host a free webinar on this second round of EIPs on Wednesday at 2 p.m. EST. Speakers on the webinar will include Roger Replogle, Cash Product Office manager for the Federal Reserve System, who will discuss the effects of EIPs on banks’ cash management.
