Same-day ACH processing is a trending topic these days. There are many questions and concerns about how this new service will affect day-to-day business as each of its three phases become effective over the next few years.

To help understand some of the specifics, an outline is provided below:

• Same-day ACH processing will be implemented in three phases:
  • Phase 1 will become effective on September 23, 2016
  • Phase 2 will become effective on September 15, 2017
  • Phase 3 will become effective on March 16, 2018
• Banks will have two deadlines to submit same-day ACH transactions:
  • A morning submission deadline of 10:30 a.m. ET, with settlement occurring at 1 p.m. ET.
  • An afternoon submission deadline of 3 p.m. ET, with settlement occurring at 5 p.m. ET.
• Virtually all types of ACH payments including credits, debits, and tax payments, will be eligible for same-day processing.
• High-value transactions above $25,000 will not be eligible.
• All banks would be required to receive same-day ACH payments, thereby giving customers the certainty of being able to send same-day ACH payments to any and all bank accounts.
• Banks will not be required to send same-day ACH transactions, they will only be required to receive those transactions.
• Banks would be mandated to make funds available from same-day ACH credits (such as payroll direct deposits) to their depositors by 5 p.m. by that bank’s local time. (By phase 3. Before phase 3 it is unclear, but most likely it will be by the next morning.)
• The fee for these transactions will be several times greater than normal ACH processing fees.
• Phase 1 will ONLY be for deposits or credit transactions. Debits will be in a latter phase.

One very important note is that the Federal Reserve has not approved, or signed off on these changes. All of this will depend upon their ultimate approval.

As you can guess, there are a few technical details that have to be worked out. Some of challenges NatPay faces are:

• How to tell if a file received in the morning is same-day, or regular.
• How to handle the employee complaints when their deposits aren’t available first thing in the morning.
• Will our customers’ payroll software be able to adjust the timing to create same-day NACHA files?
• How best to adjust our systems to allow for same-day timing. Currently, if you send a file today dated for today, the file rejects.
• How to best handle the increased risk that will result from depositing the money so quickly.

NatPay is committed to offering our customers the services they need which includes same-day ACH processing. We look forward to implementing this new service over the next few years as we communicate with our customers about their specific needs.

NatPay would very much like to hear from you about how you envision this change improving your business.

Click here to contact us today!