what is an on us item 
an on us item is a check or draft that is presented to the bank where the check writer has the funds on deposit as opposed to the depositor s bank although in some cases both check writer and depositor may happen to use the same bank the check can then be cashed or deposited into another account of course the drawing account must have a sufficient balance to pay the check understanding on us itemson us items can be very beneficial for banks conducting the transactions as they often obtain revenues from both the acquiring and issuing sides of the payment in on us transactions there is often no need to go to an outside network to obtain authorization or funds for the exchanges which may carry additional fees or surcharges on us checks may also be referred to as house checks on us items can also be in the form of electronic debits or transfers as with checks electronic on us items refer to the drawing and paying accounts at the same bank if the bank of first deposit bofd is the same as the bank of the issuer deposits do not need the services of a private clearinghouse or other third party entity on us versus other forms of transactionsin addition to on us items a number of other categories of bank transactions exist these include but are not limited to a not on us transaction an international or cross border transaction and intra regional transactions not on us items occur when the acquirer and issuer bank are separate in a typical credit card process for example an acquirer a merchant s bank both processes and settles a merchant s credit card transaction after a merchant swipes a credit card the merchant s bank requests authorization for the sale this request is routed to the card issuing bank prior to the completion of the sale international or cross border transactions are defined as when an acquirer and issuer are from different countries intra regional transactions occur when acquirers and issuers are from different regions yet still to an established geographic grouping such as europe single euro payments area sepa or gim uemoa a banking group of the economic and monetary union of west africa gim uemoa represents over eighty regional financial institutions and more than 80 million individuals 