Any depository financial institution ("DFI") as defined by the Federal Reserve Act is eligible for membership in ECCHO. The total combined deposits of all ECCHO members is approximately $5 trillion which is more than 60% of the total U.S. deposits.

The need for ECCHO rule protections, offered exclusively to ECCHO members, is based on the fact that there is no law to govern the exchanges of check images. Without ECCHO’s rules, institutions exchanging images would assume an indeterminate amount of risk.  ECCHO’s rules address this deficiency in check law by providing a common multilateral agreement between the memberships.  Full, Affiliate, Participating, and Sponsored Members are protected by ECCHO rule coverage with other ECCHO members thereby reducing their potential risk.

There are four membership types available for financial institutions; Full Members, Participating Members, Affiliates of Full Members, and Sponsored Members.  An organization, financial institution or non financial institution may elect to become a Sponsoring Organization rather than a member.  These options are outlined below.

Full Members

Defined as a depository financial institutions that has paid the Full Membership fee of $200,000 and signed the Full Membership Agreement, that has been received by ECCHO. Full Members are protected by ECCHO Rules coverage for ECP and Image exchanges with other ECCHO members and are eligible for participation in the Operations Committee and contemporaneous ad hoc subcommittees. Additionally, Full Members are eligible, as referenced through the by-laws, for direct participation in the governance of ECCHO on the Board of Directors and as officers of the organization. Recurring annual dues begin with the seventh month of membership and the dues amount varies with the total deposits of the institution and its holding company.

Participating Member

Defined as a depository financial institution that has paid the Participating Membership fee of $50,000 and has signed the Participating Membership agreement that has been received and approved by ECCHO.  Participating Members are protected by ECCHO Rules coverage for ECP and Image exchanges with other ECCHO members and are eligible for participation in the Operations Committee and contemporaneous ad-hoc subcommittees.  This allows for direct input in the ECCHO rules. Recurring annual dues begin with the seventh month of membership and the dues amount varies with the total deposits of the institution and its holding company.

Affiliate Members

Defined as an affiliate of a Full Member.  The Affiliate Bank must be a depository institution as that term is defined in Section 19(b) of the Federal Reserve Act.  The Affiliate Bank must be an “affiliate”, as that term is defined in Section 2(k) of the Bank Holding Company Act and Regulation Y, of a Full Member.  Affiliate Members are protected by ECCHO Rules coverage for ECP and Image exchanges with other ECCHO members and have the same rights and incidents of membership as a Full Member under the ECCHO Rules.  There are limitations on this class of membership.  The Affiliate Member would obtain information about, and participate indirectly in, the Operations Committee through the efforts of the Full Member with which the Affiliate Member is affiliated.

There are currently no initial or annual membership fees for an Affiliate Member.

Sponsored Members

Defined as a DFI that has signed a Sponsored Member agreement with an approved Sponsoring Organization (click here for a list of current Sponsoring Organizations). More information on Sponsoring Organizations is outlined below. Sponsored Members are protected by ECCHO Rules coverage for ECP and Image exchanges with other ECCHO members.

The financial advantage of this membership class is the absence of any initial fees to become an ECCHO member.  When the Sponsored Member signs the agreement they choose the quarterly dues option which best suits their needs.  There are two choices for quarterly dues: deposit based and transaction based (defined below).  Normally, the most economic approach for new Sponsored Members is the transaction based approach.  The Sponsored Member can switch between the two options as often as they wish.

Transaction Based – Sponsored Members pay only the low per-transaction rate for Electronic Check Presentment (ECP) and/or image transactions sent to another ECCHO member.  There is no charge for any transactions received by the Sponsored Member. The approved rate is $.0005 per transaction sent to another ECCHO Member.  If the Sponsored Member does not send any transaction, there is no charge.

Deposit Based – Sponsored Members that select the deposit based fee will pay dues based on a rate per $1 million dollars of total holding company deposits with a minimum of $100.00 per year.  Sponsored Members pay this rate regardless of the volume of transactions sent or received.     

Annual Dues Calculations
ECCHO Billing Tier	Total Deposits	Annual Dues
8	Under $100 Million	$100
7	$100 Million up to $500 Million	$200
6	$500 Million up to $1 Billion	$750
5	$1 Billion up to $5 Billion	$2,000
4	$5 Billion up to $20 Billion	$7,000
3	$20 Billion up to $60 Billion	$20,000
2	$60 Billion up to $100 Billion	$40,000
1	Over $100 Billion	$75,000

For more information, please contact Scott Miller at 406-457-5487 or email smiller@eccho.org

Sponsoring Organization Overview

Sponsoring Organizations

An organization, financial institution or non-financial institution that has signed a Sponsoring Organization agreement with ECCHO.

The Sponsoring Organization arrangement is designed for organizations that wish to encourage their members/customers to exchange ECP and/or image files under the protection of ECCHO Rules with other ECCHO members.  By sponsoring members, the Sponsoring Organization eliminates legal barriers to image exchange without incurring significant legal expense.  This arrangement allows the Sponsoring Organization to provide significant additional value to their customers/members while strengthening that relationship. 

Sponsoring Organizations may be ECCHO Full Members, other clearing houses, trade associations, third party processors, etc.  Most are organizations comprised primarily of members that are DFIs or whose primary business involves the provision of services to DFIs.

Sponsoring Organizations are eligible for participation in the ECCHO Operations Committee and may also designate one of their Sponsored Members for participation. Sponsoring Organizations do have administrative and dues collection responsibilities on behalf of their Sponsored Members.

For more information, please contact Scott Miller at 406-457-5487 or email smiller@eccho.org

For information on joining ECCHO, please visit our How to Join page.