Time is Running Out to Provide NACHA with Feedback on Same Day ACH
ACH: Time is Running Out to Provide NACHA with Feedback on Same Day ACH
Since the 1970s the principal electronic transfer system, ACH (Automated Clearing House) has been transferring payments from one institution to another. Based on stability not speed, the ACH system was due for a re-vamp to be competitive in an electronic world. After years of customers lobbying to speed things up, in 2015, a campaign, “Same Day ACH” was launched to improve the speed of settlement between banking institutions.
The campaign was laid out in three phases. The first required financial institutions to be able to process ACH credits in three settlement windows starting in September of 2016. The second phase was to have financial institutions accept debits during the same three windows by September 2017.
The third and final phase which is scheduled for March 16, 2018 requires that the institution makes funds available by 5:00PM local time for ACH credits that are processed within the day’s first two settlement windows. This does not affect the posting of debit transactions; however, it will shorten the mandatory waiting period (2 days) for an institution to stop payment before settlement by half a day.
In a collaborative Use and Demand study conducted by PYMNTS.com with NACHA in November 2017, the study shows 66.7% of financial institutions are already making same day ACH funds available by 5:00pm local time with 0% reporting an increase in fraud. Additionally, 43% currently offer same day credit originations with 40% of those not offering it reporting that it’s because their software vendors have not enabled the service. It’s expected that 75% will be offering same day credit originations by the end of 2018.
NACHA expects the current volume to be on pace for 120 million transactions annually and see same day ACH as a key component to move the ACH network forward. Feedback from financial institutions suggests that greater use could be made with some changes to its features. As a result NACHA has issued a request for comment on the following proposals by January 26, 2018:
- Add a third Same Day ACH processing window to expand access later in the day.
- Provide faster funds availability to receivers of both Same Day and non-Same Day ACH credits
- Raise the per-transaction dollar limit on Same Day ACH transactions to $100,000
The link to provide comment to the above three topics is https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MJ8FLW9
Comment is due by February 23, 2018 on a fourth proposal topic:
- Explore the industry’s interest in ACH processing on weekends and holidays.
For additional information about the RFC: https://www.nacha.org/rules/request-comment-expanding-same-day-ach
For additional information contact the author Cindy Tice and ctice@fosaudit.com.
Automated clearing house | Cindy Tice | Time is Running Out to Provide NACHA with Feedback on Same Day ACH