Patent ID: 8719160

Claim:
A method of receiving and processing payment items, comprising: receiving a first electronic payment item at a paying bank device comprising at least one processor and memory, the paying bank device associated with a payment item processing entity; processing, at the paying bank device, the first electronic payment item along a first processing path performing duplicate detection processing; generating and transmitting, at the paying bank device, a return record based on nonpayment of the first electronic payment item, wherein the return record comprises a reason for return field; receiving, at the paying bank device, a second electronic payment item; identifying, at the paying bank device, a reason for return field encoded within the second electronic payment item; determining, at the paying bank device, that the second electronic payment item is a re-clear item based on the identification of the reason for return field encoded within the second electronic payment item; and processing, at the paying bank device, the second electronic payment item along an abbreviated processing path that does not include at least some of the duplicate detection processing of the first processing path, based on the determination that the second electronic payment item is a re-clear item.