More news regarding same day ACH is popping up as the second phase of NACHA’s rollout of same day ACH capabilities nears its launch date. Last year, same day credits were implemented and in a few weeks, debits will also be required. By all accounts, the credits were well received by the market and fraud for these fast transaction types is under control. As Treasury and Risk reports, the roll out of credits were well received for emergency payroll deposits and insurance claims:
Nancy Atkinson, founder and principal of Pittsburgh-based GTB Consulting, said that she has been surprised by the level of use of same-day ACH.
“The use case that’s been most frequent is to make payroll,” she said. “If the payroll file didn’t get sent two days in advance, instead of having to convert it to wires to every employee, they’re converting it to same-day ACH.”
“We’re seeing the most common use being missed payroll,” confirmed Craig Vaream, managing director and head of North America payables and receivables at J.P. Morgan. But he noted that some organizations, like insurer Aflac, have been more enthusiastic about embracing same-day ACH.
Aflac “felt they could improve satisfaction among their insureds by paying faster when a claim comes in,” he said. “Aflac identified this as a differentiator in the marketplace for them.”
When same day debits are launched this September, the expectation is that the use case most likely to take off are for consumer bill pay:
The next phase of NACHA’s implementation of same-day ACH transactions, same-day debits, will launch on Sept. 15. Vaream predicted that the use of same-day ACH will increase when debit becomes available, as debits are used for late bill payments.
“I imagine we’ll see some pickup to process same-day, versus incurring the penalties for missing paying a credit card or some other bill they may owe,” he said.