Electronic Deposit of Checks. Its Regulation

"2016 - Year of the Bicentennial of the Declaration of National Independence" COMMUNICATION "A" 6071 22/09/2016 TO FINANCIAL ENTITIES, TO ELECTRONIC CLEARING HOUSES, TO COOPERATIVE CREDIT UNIONS (LAW 26.173):
Ref.: Circular
SINAP 1 - 50
RUNOR 1 - 1229
OPASI 2 - 505
Electronic Deposit of Checks. Its Regulation.

---

We address you to inform you that this Institution has adopted the resolution that, in its pertinent part, establishes:

"1. It is ordered that, effective November 1, 2016 inclusive, when financial entities admit the electronic deposit of checks - that is, when they allow their customers to present common or deferred payment checks for collection through the capture and transmission of their digital image - they must comply with the following:

i) Arrange the necessary means to allow effective compliance with the responsibilities derived from the applicable regulations.

ii) Define a policy to determine which clients they will offer the electronic deposit of checks service to.

iii) Contractually determine the conditions under which the enabled clients will be governed by the aforementioned service - such as maximum amounts (individual per instrument and/or global per client), eventual responsibilities regarding rejections, periodicity of the eventual transmission of physical checks, claims by the drawer, or loss of the physical check.

iv) Ensure that the developments and technologies they use allow them to transmit to the Electronic Clearing Houses (CEC) the data required for the electronic clearing of checks by using the record designs provided according to the NACHA messaging standards accepted in the National Payments System.

v) Have the image of the front and back of the documents duly identified as processed for electronic deposit and endorsed for collection, to which effect they must include - front and back - the legend "presented electronically for collection". For these purposes, they must perform the relevant validations and, in the event of omission, proceed to reject them using the corresponding cause.

-2-

2. For the purposes of providing the service provided for in the preceding point 1, financial entities must fulfill the following requirements in the matter of information security:

i) The electronic deposit of checks through an image captured on a user device must fall within the requirements established for Internet Banking or Mobile Banking in the regulations on "Minimum requirements for management, implementation and control of risks related to information technology, information systems and associated resources for financial entities".

ii) Check images captured by devices belonging to clients and incorporated into the payment instruction in Internet Banking or Mobile Banking must be considered part of a securities deposit transaction. Consequently, they must align with the compliance of the particular requirements established for scenario ETR009 provided for by the aforementioned regulations.

iii) Financial entities must perform a risk analysis to determine the criticality of the scenarios applicable to the regulations on "Minimum requirements for management, implementation and control of risks related to information technology, information systems and associated resources for financial entities", by virtue of which they may consider additional and/or complementary measures for the protection of the operation.

iv) Images captured on devices belonging to the user, unless the entity implements additional security mechanisms that give them legitimacy, must remain "pending confirmation" until their final acceptance by the entity.

v) Images captured on devices belonging to the user must have a quality no lower than that required for their conversion to the format necessary for their subsequent processing in the Electronic Clearing Houses, in accordance with the NACHA messaging standards accepted in the National Payments System.

The compliance with the foregoing does not replace the risk analysis that each financial entity performs on this operation.

3. Substitute, effective November 1, 2016 inclusive, the last paragraph of point 2. and point 3.2.4.2. of the regulations on "Instrumentation, conservation and reproduction of documents" - text according to Communication "A" 6068 - with the following:

"In the case of checks, the drawers may request the physical document - at the headquarters, branches, or agencies where the drawers have their current accounts open - for a period of 60 calendar days from the date of payment.

Without prejudice to this, when it comes to checks presented electronically for collection and whose image has been captured by the clients, financial entities may - under their responsibility - provide in the contracts celebrated with those clients that the latter must conserve the original documents for the aforementioned period and keep them at their disposal in case of request."

"3.2.4.2. Proceed to their destruction once 60 calendar days have elapsed counted from the date of payment."

-3-

4. Incorporate, effective November 1, 2016 inclusive, as the last paragraph of points 3.3. and 3.4. of the regulations on "Instrumentation, conservation and reproduction of documents" - text according to Communication "A" 6068 - the following:

"What is provided for in this point shall not apply when it comes to paid checks that have been presented electronically for collection and whose image has been captured by the client."

5. Incorporate, effective November 1, 2016, as points 3.4. and 6.1.3.10. of the regulations on "Regulation of the bank current account" the following:

"3.4. Electronic deposit of checks.
Checks (common or deferred payment) presented electronically for collection and whose image has been captured by the client must state on the front and back of the physical document the following expression: 'presented electronically for collection'."

"6.1.3.10. Not having the expression 'presented electronically for collection' -on the front and back of the physical document-, solely in the case of checks presented electronically for collection and whose image has been captured by the client."

6. Incorporate, effective November 1, 2016, as the last paragraph of point 3.2. and as point 5.1.3.10. of the regulations on "Demand accounts opened in cooperative credit unions" the following:

"Bills of exchange presented electronically for collection and whose image has been captured by the client must state on the front and back of the physical document the following expression: 'presented electronically for collection'."

"5.1.3.10. Not having the expression 'presented electronically for collection' -on the front and back of the physical document-, solely in the case of bills of exchange presented electronically for collection and whose image has been captured by the customer."

7. Establish that financial entities must, prior to November 1, 2016, notify account holders that they may request the physical paid checks - at the headquarters, branches, or agencies where they have their current accounts open - for a period of 60 calendar days from the date of payment.

Such notification must be made through a written document addressed to the client's real domicile - separately from any other information sent by the obligated subject (account summaries, informational bulletins, etc.), even if it forms part of the same shipment - or electronically in those cases where this is the form of communication, in accordance with what is provided for in the regulations on "Information to clients by electronic means for the care of the environment"."

-4-

Finally, we inform you that we will subsequently send you the sheets that, in replacement of those provided at the appropriate time, correspond to be incorporated into the regulations on "Instrumentation, conservation and reproduction of documents", "Regulation of the bank current account" and "Demand accounts opened in cooperative credit unions".

We greet you attentively.
CENTRAL BANK OF THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC
Matías A. Gutiérrez Girault Agustín Torcassi
Manager of Issuance of Norms
Deputy General Manager of Norms