News / Updates / Blog

HOLIDAY NOTICE: Independence Day

Thursday, July 4, 2019 (Independence Day) is a Federal Banking Holiday. The Federal Reserve will be closed on this day, as well as NatPay.

If you have a file transmission that falls between the dates of Friday, June28, 2019 through Thursday, July 4, 2019 you may need to transmit one day earlier than your normally-scheduled transmission date.

Please review your calendar to see if these dates and times affect you. If you don’t have a calendar, please contact us.

If you have any questions, please contact customer service via our online form, by email at [email protected], or by calling 813-222-0333.

HOLIDAY NOTICE: Memorial Day

Monday, May 27, 2019 (Memorial Day) is a Federal Banking Holiday. The Federal Reserve will be closed on this day, as well as NatPay.

If you have a file transmission that falls between the dates of Tuesday,May 21, 2019 through Monday, May 27, 2019 you may need to transmit one day earlier than your normally-scheduled transmission date.

Please review your calendar to see if these dates and times affect you. If you don’t have a calendar, please contact us.

If you have any questions, please contact customer service via our online form, by email at [email protected], or by calling 813-222-0333.

2018 Year End Holiday Schedule

Click here to view the 2018 year end holiday schedule.

HOLIDAY NOTICE: Independence Day

Wednesday, July 4, 2018 (Independence Day) is a Federal Banking Holiday. The Federal Reserve will be closed on this day, as well as NatPay.

If you have a file transmission that falls between the dates of Thursday, June 28, 2018 through Wednesday, July 4, 2018 you may need to transmit one day earlier than your normally-scheduled transmission date.

Please review your calendar to see if these dates and times affect you. If you don’t have a calendar, please contact us.

If you have any questions, please contact customer service via our online form, by email at [email protected], or by calling 813-222-0333.

HOLIDAY NOTICE: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Monday, January 15, 2018 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) is a Federal Banking Holiday. The Federal Reserve will be closed on this day, as well as NatPay.

If you have a file transmission that falls between the dates of Tuesday, January 9, 2018 through Monday, January 15, 2018 you may need to transmit one day earlier than your normally-scheduled transmission date.

Please review your calendar to see if these dates and times affect you. If you don’t have a calendar, please contact us.

If you have any questions, please contact customer service via our online form, by email at [email protected], or by calling 813-222-0333.

FRAUD ALERT: Hacked Email Accounts

NatPay would like to alert our ACH and Professional Payroll Processing customers that there has been an increase in fraudulent activity concerning hacked email accounts.

Clients of Professional Payroll Processors are noticing that some of their email accounts are being compromised, and fraudulent emails are being sent on their behalf to their payroll processor to make direct deposits to fraudulent bank accounts.

To help thwart fraudulent activity of this kind, processors should be aware of some red flags:

  • Out of cycle payrolls
  • Larger than normal single deposits
  • Large payroll requests for new employees, or existing employees with a new bank account

Processors should call their clients for confirmation if anything seems odd or irregular.

Help spread the word to keep email accounts safe. Here are several good practices to abide by:

  • Never share your password with anyone
  • Always log out of your email account when not in use especially on a shared computer
  • Change account passwords on a regular basis
  • Never write down a password
  • Use a password manager like LastPass to help organize and secure passwords
  • Use uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and punctuation to make strong passwords

If you have any questions, please contact customer service via our online form, by email at [email protected], or by calling 813-222-0333.

NatPay Pay Cards

Get FREE Direct Deposit with NatPay Pay Cards!

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Same-Day ACH File Processing

NatPay now offers Same-Day ACH credits!

Learn More

New Online Returns

NatPay is excited to announce new, online returns management via My.DirectDeposit.com!

Within the next week, you will notice a new menu item in My.DirectDeposit.com called “Returns.” From this screen, you will be able to re-direct your credit returns, and see all of your withdrawal returns and correction notices.

For complete details and instructions, download the new Direct Deposit Returns Guide by clicking the link below.

If you have any questions, please contact customer service via our online form, by email at [email protected], or by calling 813-222-0333.

Download the new Direct Deposit Returns Guide.

HOLIDAY NOTICE: Labor Day

If you have a file transmission that falls between the dates of Tuesday, August 30, 2016 through Monday, September 5, 2016 you may need to transmit one day earlier than your normally-scheduled transmission date.

Please review your calendar to see if these dates and times affect you. If you don’t have a calendar, please contact us.

If you have any questions, please contact customer service via our online form, by email at [email protected], or by calling 813-222-0333.

COMING SOON: Two-Factor Authentication for Additional Security on My.DirectDeposit.com

In this age of phishing attacks and identity thefts, relying on a login password alone does not guarantee online security. No matter how strong or complex your primary password might be, an online account stands the risk of a breach if a password happens to fall into the wrong hands.

With hundreds of thousands of users relying on NatPay for ACH services, ensuring information security is an important priority for us.

My.DirectDeposit.com not only helps you to run your business, it holds some of your sensitive business data, which is why NatPay will be offering Two-Factor Authentication to our customers as an additional security option towards the end of August 2016.

Two-Factor Authentication adds an additional layer of protection to your My.DirectDeposit.com account so that you may rest assured that access to your account is safe and secure.

What is Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)?

2FA provides an additional layer of security to access your account. It requires two successive factors: ‘something you know’ (your password) and ‘something you have access to’ (your mobile phone or email address, for example). 2FA helps to greatly reduce account compromises due to phishing attacks and other online frauds.

How Does 2FA Work?

Once 2FA is enabled, you first log into your NatPay account with the usual credentials. You will then receive a uniquely-generated verification code to your phone as an SMS text message, or a specified email address which you then enter on My.DirectDeposit.com to complete the login process.

Two-Factor Authentication

Optional, But Highly Recommended 

2FA is completely optional. But, from a security standpoint, 2FA is highly recommended. Security benefits of 2FA far outweigh the minor inconvenience of having to authenticate through a two-step process.

HOLIDAY NOTICE: Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Years 2021

NatPay and its processing banks have the following holiday schedule. Please review your calendar to see if these dates and times affect you. If you don’t have a calendar, please contact us.


Thursday, 11/25/2021, Thanksgiving Day: 
NatPay Closed

If you have a file transmission that falls between the dates of Monday, November 22, 2021 through Friday, November 26, 2021 you may need to transmit one day earlier than your normally-scheduled transmission date.


Friday, 12/24/2021, Christmas Eve Day: 
NatPay closes early at 5 p.m. ET

Wires must be received by 1 p.m. ET and reverse-wire requests must be received by 10 a.m. ET.

Friday, 12/31/2021, New Years Eve Day: 
NatPay operates normal hours 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET

Since Christmas and New Years fall on a Saturday this year the Federal Reserve will not observe a holiday. NatPay’s only observance of Christmas this year will be to close at 5 p.m. ET on Christmas Eve.

If you have any questions, please contact customer service via our online form, by email at [email protected], or by calling 813-222-0333.

HOLIDAY NOTICE: Veterans Day

Wednesday, November 11, 2015 (Veterans Day) is a Federal Banking Holiday.The Federal Reserve will be closed on this day, as well as NatPay.

If you have a file transmission that falls between the dates of Thursday,November 5, 2015 through Wednesday, November 11, 2015 you may need to transmit one day earlier than your normally-scheduled transmission date.

Please review your calendar to see if these dates and times affect you. If you don’t have a calendar, please contact us.

If you have any questions, please contact customer service via our online form, by email at [email protected], or by calling 813-222-0333.

Proof of TIN

There are certain requirements that must be met when providing proof of a company’s tax ID number.

Handwritten documents are NOT acceptable.

The following types of documents will be accepted by NatPay:

  • SS4 Form or Letter 147C

  • Filed 941 or 940 Form (Both pages with a signature under Part 5.)

  • Form 8865 or 8821 (Both forms in a printed format and with a signature on the bottom page.)

  • Screenshot of EFTPS Batch Provider Enrollment that displays the legal business name of the company and their EIN or TIN number.

  • An official governmental form that contains the printed FEIN number and the legal business name of the company. If the document requires a signature, it must be signed.

HOLIDAY NOTICE: Labor Day

Monday, September 7, 2015 (Labor Day) is a Federal Banking Holiday. The Federal Reserve will be closed on this day, as well as NatPay.

If you have a file transmission that falls between the dates of Tuesday, September 1, 2015 through Monday, September 7, 2015 you may need to transmit one day earlier than your normally-scheduled transmission date.

Please review your calendar to see if these dates and times affect you. If you don’t have a calendar, please contact us.

If you have any questions, please contact customer service via our online form, by email at [email protected], or by calling 813-222-0333.

Same-Day ACH Processing

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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABA Urges Fed to Back NACHA Same-Day Payments Rule

ABA today urged the Federal Reserve to approve the recent rule change from NACHA, the electronic payments association, that would require financial institutions to have same-day ACH capability and require sending institutions to pay a 5.2 cent per-transaction fee to offset the costs of participating in same-day ACH.

ABA noted that mandatory participation and interbank compensation are essential to a well-functioning same-day ACH process. The association contrasted the NACHA plan with the regional Federal Reserve Banks’ FedACH SameDay Service, which includes a voluntary opt-in. “The program is five years old and only 100 financial institutions use it,” ABA said. “The benefits of offering this service as an ODFI are limited because there are a limited number of RDFIs that accept the faster payment.”

ABA encouraged the Fed to support the NACHA rule change — and include its provisions in the Fed banks’ operating documents — so that financial institutions can begin implementing same-day ACH for their customers without further delay. The Fed will continue to accept comments through July 2, and ABA encouraged bankers to submit comments in favor of the NACHA proposal. For more information, contact ABA’s Steve Kenneally.

 

http://bankingjournal.aba.com/2015/06/aba-urges-fed-to-back-nacha-same-day-payments-rule/

We are OPEN on July 3, 2015

Friday, July 3, 2015 is not a Federal Banking Holiday. The Federal Reserve will be open on this day, as well as NatPay.

However, we understand that some banks may be closed on Friday, July 3, 2015. If your bank is closed on this day, you may want to consider transmitting one day earlier than your normally-scheduled transmission date.

Please review your calendar to see if these dates and times affect you. If you don’t have a calendar, please contact us.

If you have any questions, please contact customer service via our online form, by email at [email protected], or by calling 813-222-0333.

4th-Of-July

HOLIDAY NOTICE: Memorial Day

HOLIDAY NOTICE:

Memorial Day

Monday, May 25, 2015 (Memorial Day) is a Federal Banking Holiday. The Federal Reserve will be closed on this day, as well as NatPay.

If you have a file transmission that falls between the dates of Tuesday, May 19, 2015 through Monday, May 25, 2015 you may need to transmit one day earlier than your normally-scheduled transmission date.

Please review your calendar to see if these dates and times affect you. If you don’t have a calendar, please contact us.

If you have any questions, please contact customer service via our online form, by email at [email protected], or by calling 813-222-0333.

Risk Management in the ACH World

Risk Management in the ACH World

By Steve Pereira, Vice President & General Manager of NatPay

You can’t pick up a business journal or industry magazine and not notice that fraud is definitely on the rise. It has always been a problem lurking on the edges of our businesses, but it has now become a daily worry and concern.

Risk management in the ACH world may seem quite daunting. Which is why it is critical to partner with an experienced ACH vendor that has a proven track record in loss mitigation.

Over the past 25 years NatPay has perfected several methods to combat criminal activity. Even though a multi-faceted approach is required to reduce risk and minimize fraud, there are a few simple rules to follow for effective risk management. Click here to download NatPay’s latest guide.

If you have any questions, please contact customer service via our online form, by email at [email protected], or by calling 813-222-0333.