HERNDON, Va. – Earlier this week, NACHA (The Electronic Payments Association) announced that its voting membership approved Same Day ACH, enabling same-day capability for virtually any ACH transaction and creating options for the businesses, governments and consumers who want to move their money faster.

When the proposal was originally introduced in February, NACS acknowledged that while faster settlement of ACH transactions would be beneficial, the proposal included implementation of an interbank fee. At the time,NACS noted that the new fee appeared suspiciously similar to a swipe fee, and would ultimately undermine ACH as a low-cost alternative to payment cards.

While the final rule reduces the proposed 8.2 cent “interbank fee” to just over 5 cents, the fact that NACHA is setting the prices that all banks will charge for ACH amounts to price-fixing, with NACHA as the hub in a classic hub-and-spoke conspiracy. By setting a central fee, NACHA raises serious antitrust concerns and distorts the market. 

According to a NACHA press release announcing the new rule, Same Day ACH will build upon existing, next-day ACH Network capabilities and establish a new option for same-day clearing and settlement via ACH. Under the rule, two new same-day settlement windows will be added to the ACH Network, increasing the movement of funds between financial institutions from once each day to three times each day.

Same Day ACH will be implemented in a phased approach. In Phase 1, ACH credit transactions will be eligible for same day processing, supporting use cases such as hourly payroll, person-to-person (P2P) payments and same-day bill pay. In Phase 2, same-day ACH debits will be added, allowing for a wide variety of consumer bill payment use cases like utility, mortgage, loan and credit card payments. Phase 3 introduces faster ACH credit funds availability requirements for Receiving Depository Financial Institutions (RDFI). Phase 1 is scheduled to begin September 23, 2016.

Earlier this year, NACS argued that the proposal would not update the ACH system in the most technologically advanced way and will require merchants to invest heavily to ensure their systems will be compatible with same-day processing.