Payable Through Account

A payable-through account (PTA) is a demand deposit account through which banking agencies located in the United States extend cheque writing privileges to the customers of other institutions, often foreign banks.PTA accounts are a concern to bank regulators because the banks or agencies providing the accounts may not subject the end customers to the same level of scrutiny as they would their own customers. These concerns were addressed in Title 3A, especially Section 311(b)(4), of the Patriot Act.A full explanation from the FDIC is available at: http://www.fdic.gov/news/news/financial/1995/fil9530.html
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A correspondent banking account relationship established by a foreign bank with a U.S. bank, for the purpose of clearing U.S. dollar denominated checks drawn on the foreign bank by its demand deposit customers.