The Electronic Payments Association on Thursday (Dec. 9) formally sought feedback on Same Day ACH. The NACHA plan, though, wouldn't kick in for almost two years, as it would materialize in three phases starting in September 2016.
"In today’s environment, everyone wants things faster, including payments," said Janet O. Estep, president and CEO of NACHA. "Moving forward now signals an immediate, tangible commitment to provide choices for the consumers, businesses and government agencies who want to move money more quickly and efficiently, directly between bank accounts."
Originating financial institutions (ODFIs) would be able to submit files of same-day ACH payments through two new clearing windows provided by the ACH Operators: A morning window at 10:00 a.m. ET, with settlement occurring at 12:00 noon; An afternoon window at 3:00 p.m. ET, with settlement occurring at 5:00 p.m. The proposal excludes international transactions as well as transactions of more than $25,000.
The proposal would make the acceptance mandatory, to give all parties confidence. "All RDFIs (receiving financial institutions) would be mandated to receive same-day ACH payments, thereby giving ODFIs and Originators the certainty of being able to send same-day ACH payments to accounts at all RDFIs," the proposal said.
NACHA also detailed some of the use cases where it saw same-day ACH as being the most helpful. "Business to-Business payments, enabling faster settlement of invoice payments between trading partners, and including remittance information with the payments. Same-day payrolls, supporting business’ needs to pay hourly workers, and providing flexibility for late and emergency payrolls and missed deadlines; and enabling employees to have faster access to their pay in these cases. Expedited bill payments using both ACH credits and debits, enabling consumers to make on-time bill payments on due dates, and providing faster crediting for late payments. Account-to-account transfers, providing faster crediting for consumers who move money among various accounts they own."
