Did you receive a tax refund this year? Or get paid by direct deposit recently?
If so, you’ve benefitted from ACH, or Automated Clearing House, payments.
“There were about 30 billion ACH payments made last year,” stated Mike Herd, Senior Vice President and network administrator at Nacha.
Nacha is the national association for the Automated Clearing House payments network – the organization that oversees the network that enables these electronic payment types.
Herd recently sat down with Tim Mills, Regions’ Emerging and Digital Payments Group manager, to discuss what Nacha is and how they help financial institutions move electronic payments safely and soundly.
Herd explains that Nacha is responsible for developing and maintaining operating rules, standards, best practices and other guidance for participants in the ACH system, which includes most, if not all, banks and credit unions across the U.S.
Regions is a strong supporter and direct member of Nacha. “ACH payments serve as a lifeline for many of our customers, whether they’re benefitting from our Early Pay service through direct deposit, using Bill Pay within online and mobile banking, or numerous other use cases,” says Mills.
“ACH payments serve as a lifeline for many of our customers.”
Tim Mills, Regions’ Emerging and Digital Payments Group manager
While payday is probably everyone’s favorite example of an ACH payment, Herd says there are many other uses. Tax refunds and government benefits like Social Security also almost exclusively use direct deposit ACH but “beyond that, ACH is commonly used for things like electronic bill payments, such as paying your utility bills or insurance bills; for account-to-account transfers between two or more accounts that you may own; and also for business-to-business payments.”
In terms of payments processed over the network, Regions ranks number 11 nationally in both value and volume – a testament to the efficiency of the network and how reliable the ACH network is for the bank and its customers.
Listen as Mills and Herd discuss the evolution of the ACH network and tips on how to avoid payment fraud.
