To: Board of Supervisors
From: Dan Mierzwa, Treasurer-Tax Collector
Report Title: APPROVE and AUTHORIZE Contra Costa County Treasurer, or designee, to enter into an agreement amendment with Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. to add Account Validation Services.
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RECOMMENDATIONS:
APPROVE and AUTHORIZE the Contra Costa County Treasurer, or designee, to enter into an agreement amendment with Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. (“WFB”) to add Account Validation Services (“AVS”) effective December 1st, 2026, for implementation of Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments. The term for the agreement with WFB is from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2029.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no fiscal impact for this agreement amendment. If the County engages WFB’s AVS, the annual fees and costs are not to exceed $10,000 and will be paid from the earnings allowance made from the compensating balance in the Wells Fargo Bank accounts.
BACKGROUND:
Contra Costa County has a general banking service agreement with WFB through June 30, 2029. As the County has been actively working on the implementation of ACH payments to reduce paper checks, the County Treasurer has identified WFB’s AVS as reliable and secure option to reduce ACH payment fraud risk. AVS helps validate the ownership of bank accounts, reduce ACH returns and unauthorized ACH transactions, and ensure compliances with relevant regulations. Following Board of Supervisors authorization, the County Treasurer-Tax Collector executed the Data Protection Agreement with WFB, enabling the County to subscribe to AVS.
The County Treasurer actively reached out to several county departments regarding the implementation of ACH payments and received overwhelming interest in transitioning from existing paper checks to ACH payments to their vendors. The County Treasurer anticipates not only large number of county departments will adopt ACH payments but also many county vendors will sign up for ACH payments. Therefore, the County Treasurer amended the annual cost of AVS to not to exceed $10,000 to accommodate the strong demand.
The cost of these services will be paid by the interest earned on the daily cash balance with Wells Fargo, and if necessary, the monies deposited with Allspring Global Investments.
The County Treasurer has negotiated with WFB to amend the existing general banking service agreement to include AVS with assistance from the County Counsel’s Office.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
If the agreement amendment is not authorized, the County Treasurer will not be able to implement ACH payments county-wide.