A check route indicates through which domestic collecting bank a payment documented can be collected.

Depending on the type of collection document (e.g., Debit notes, Checks to order, Traveler checks) and the country on which it is drawn, a collecting bank can be chosen from the addresses stored in the system. All payment documents with the same criteria for “Country” and “Payment document” can then be sent to this collecting bank.

If a default account has been defined, then this account along with the associated settlement code will be used for the settlement in the remittance creation.

There is a further option to modify the check route control on a customer-specific basis. By way of example, a more sophisticated control for country = 'Germany' has been implemented in the standard product. This is achieved by using the group of banks defined via the 4th digit of the German clearing code ('Bank Identifier'), or the 8th digit of the IBAN, respectively. In addition, a more sophisticated check route control has been implemented for the bank group of the savings banks and 'Landesbanken' according to clearing code districts (the first 3 digits of the clearing code).

Maintaining a Export Check Routing

A check route indicates via which foreign collecting bank a payment document can be collected.

Depending on the currency of the payment document, the country it is drawn on and the type of document (e.g., Debit notes, Checks to order, Traveler checks) an address for the collecting bank can be selected from the system. All payment documents that have the same criteria for “currency”, “country” and “payment document” can then be sent to this collecting bank.

For settlement, it is also possible to indicate the number of value days to be added to the order date for the collection. These value days take into account the currency calendar. For example, if the payment document is presented on a Friday and if the check route is defined at four value days, the Thursday is proposed as default for settlement with the collecting bank in the Handling Checks business sector.

Furthermore, the agreement with the collecting bank usually defines the fee it is entitled to charge for collecting payment documents. This is a pass-through fee charged to the presenter when the checks are presented and directly deducted from the check amount, then credited to the collecting bank when the checks are sent or at later intervals. In many cases this is a unit fee charged for each check presented. This fee has to be set up in the definition of fees and marked as a check fee, so that the fee can be entered in the 'Handling Check Presentation' transaction (CHTOPN) in the second settlement grid to be immediately debited to the presenter and at the same time marked as a credit for the collecting bank in the pool.

If the collecting bank does not have a direct account, a different account can be entered in the field 'Default Account' that is then used to settle payment documents.

The field 'Max. Number of Checks (per Remittance)' defines the maximum number of checks permitted to be pooled in a check remittance contract. If the maximum number is exceeded in the “Handling Check Presentation” or in the “Generate Remittance” transaction, an error message is generated, and the user must adjust the contract data before processing of the contract can be completed.