The amendments concern Same Day ACH and new ways of making ACH payments easier to use, the release stated. Two of the rules also give a new framework for businesses, financial institutions (FIs), payment providers and technology companies to authorize consumer ACH payments, able to be applied to new channels and technologies adopted by customers to interact and buy from businesses.
Other components include reducing some of the administrative requirements surrounding obligations to obtain or provide payment-related documentation and putting a specific timeline in place to handle claims of unauthorized payments, the release stated.
In addition, the new rules make explicit which scenarios are not appropriate for reversing ACH payments. Nacha will now have more authority to enforce rules on “egregious violations,” according to the release.
Michael Herd, senior vice president of ACH Network Administration, said the rules are changed whenever needed so as to accommodate new developments in payments.
“Nacha and our members work to evolve the ACH ecosystem as new business needs arise and as technology changes,” he said, according to the release. “These new rules should be useful to the many thousands of businesses and other organizations that enable consumers to conduct transactions using new technologies and channels.”
Last month, Nacha provided new resources for voice payments and cybersecurity. One called Voice Payments: An Introduction and Overview was intended to give information about conversational payment technology. The other, COVID-19 Best Fraud Prevention and Cybersecurity Practices, was a top-10 list of the best ways for companies to help protect against cyberthreats that have become more abundant since the virus hit.
ACH is a computer-based network for processing transactions. Last year, it managed 24.7 billion transactions, moving almost $56 trillion in value.
