Formats for Payments Requests

The Financial Organization Master File (FOMF) is a directory of financial organizations that accept Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments: banks, credit unions, savings banks, savings   loan organizations, and other similar institutions.

For each financial institution, the FOMF includes the name, address, routing transit number (RTN), and other relevant information.

The Bureau of the Fiscal Service uses the FOMF to validate RTNs during payment and post payment processing.

Federal Agencies use the FOMF to validate RTN’s during pre-payment activities to reduce invalid payments.

You can get updates monthly or weekly. The weekly update is a master only with supplemental records added.

If you need the information in the FOMF, you may arrange to get it, including monthly or even weekly updates. If you no longer want to get it, you may arrange to stop. Contact the PAM Help Desk:

816-414-2340

pam.help.desk@fiscal.treasury.gov

The Federal Reserve Bank delivers routing number information on the 26th of each month (or the next business day when the 26th is a weekend or holiday). Kansas City Financial Center (KFC) uses the updated information to generate the FOMF.

The FOMF includes these files:

• Master or new FOMF: Includes only "active EFT institutions" – institutions that take electronic fund transfers (EFT)
• History FOMF: Includes both active and inactive EFT institutions
• Cross reference FOMF: Lists RTNs that have merged or closed since the last update
• Change file: Lists RTNS that have changed since the last update
• If you need a copy of the FOMF formats, contact us at
  FS.AgencyOutreach@fiscal.treasury.gov

PAM SPR Field #34, SPS 440 Record 10 Field #11

If you are paying through International ACH or IAT, you need the 2-character code for the country you are sending to.

• Country codes for International ACH and IAT payments

PAM SPR Field 65

If you are mailing bulk check shipments to foreign countries through the consulate, you need the 3-character code for that country.

• Consular codes for bulk payment checks

You can use Corporate Trade Exchange (CTX) to include complete remittance details and to cover multiple invoices at the same time.

Although CTX is typically used to pay vendors, you can also use it for other situations, such as:

• Paying allotments and deductions, for example a monthly payment to a Union to cover union dues that are deducted from union members' salary payments
• Paying child support payments to a state Child Support Enforcement Agency or the State Disbursement Unit.
• The advantage of CTX is that it allows 999 addenda records for a total of 9,999 invoices per payment

If you use CTX, you must send the payments to PAM with an EDIX12 fully formatted 820 addendum.

To get a copy of the document, CTX Addendum Supplement to PAM SPR 5.0.0, contact us: FS.AgencyOutreach@fiscal.treasury.gov

You can get a report of the results of your bulk file validation by e-mail, file, or both.

The report includes this information:

• File status: Accepted, Accepted with Errors, Rejected
  If the file is rejected or accepted with errors, you will see an explanation.
• File summary with information by schedule, showing
  • Item count
  • Total summary amount
  • Schedule number
  • Payment type
  • Payment method
  • Agency Location Code (ALC)
• Control number: A unique number (Cxxxxxx) that PAM assigns for SPS summary certifications
• Do Not Pay payment screening
• Invalid Routing Transit Numbers (RTNs) and the number of occurrences in the file
• Contact information for the PAM Help Desk

You may choose e-mail, file, or both.

If you choose e-mail, you maintain the e-mail group that gets the report.

If you choose file, you can use either Connect: Direct (C:D) or Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). In either case, the file is formatted for you to upload the results to your agency's internal applications.

To arrange this, contact us: FS.AgencyOutreach@fiscal.treasury.gov.