Great news for merchants who accept ACH as a payment method! NACHA has just announced a new ACH settlement plan that will allow ACH transactions to settle in the same day. This is a very big change for NACHA.
The organization announced on Tuesday, March 18 that it will use a phased approach in rolling out a same-day settlement solution for ACH. Currently, ACH is, at best, a single, next-day settlement payment solution. NACHA is in the process of implementing steps that will change this to be a multiple, same-day settlement solution.
In phase one, same-day ACH credits/refunds will be released. This will support critical payments including payroll, person-to-person (P2P) payments and bill pay. In Phase 2, NACHA will introduce same-day ACH debits and consumer payments including utility, mortgage, loan and credit card bill pay. Finally, a third phase will be rolled out, which will add a second settlement window and will provide merchants to have more immediate funding.
Further details will be provided by NACHA in the fall of 2014. We like how NACHA has listened to feedback it has gathered from merchants and payment industry professionals over the past few years. ACH has often been criticized over the years as being a slow payment method in terms of settlement and funding. This same day settlement solution along with ACH’s lower transaction costs means that, looking forward, ACH can be a very competitive payment method for merchants.
For more information, please review the following NACHA news release regarding the announced features.
PayPrin delivers excellent payment processing solutions, including ACH gateway and settlement for some of the most challenging non-face-to-face merchant categories. For assistance with ACH processing please call +1-800-550-1303 or contact PayPrin online today.
