The festive season is here and for many of us giving to our favorite causes is an important part of that. For the charities we open our hearts and wallets to, paying by ACH should be an important part of the process. “Charities and houses of worship can really see a tremendous value by using ACH for ongoing donations,” said Brad Smith, Nacha Senior Director, Industry Engagement and Advocacy. Sustaining donors who give regularly by ACH have tremendous value to charitable groups, and Smith has the numbers to back that up.

A big enhancement is coming next year for Same Day ACH, but changes to meet the needs of users are an ongoing process, the chairman of the Nacha Board of Directors told a recent conference of corporate treasury professionals. “We never stop. We’re always looking at where do we go next,” said Joe Hussey, Managing Director, North America Payables & Receivables Product Executive, J.P. Morgan.

In this most unusual year, we’ve seen many things change, including the way businesses pay vendors. With staff often operating remotely, there’s been a noticeable shift away from paper checks in favor of electronic payments. Now, a new survey finds a big push is on to convert the majority of B2B payments to electronic.  The Association for Financial Professionals conducted the survey during its recent AFP 2020 conference, held virtually. More than three-quarters of responses came from corporate practitioners who manage treasury functions.  

Many are familiar with the ACH Network, which last year electronically moved 24.7 billion payments valued at nearly $56 trillion between accounts at different financial institutions for payments including large B2B transactions or payroll direct deposit.

There’s a “Seinfeld” episode where Jerry gets hundreds of checks—each for 12 cents—as residuals for appearing on the “Super Terrific Happy Hour,” and winds up with writer’s cramp from endorsing them. The good news now is that whenever that episode—or any other “Seinfeld” episode—plays on TV, the real Jerry can collect his residuals by Direct Deposit.

Every hour of every day, in corners of the world near and far, the men and women of the United States armed forces are hard at work keeping us safe. That’s why it’s important to pause every Nov. 11—Veterans Day—to remember the sacrifices so many have made for the rest of us.

Direct Deposit is one of those things that’s easy to take for granted. Yet, like clockwork, it delivers employees' salaries each payday, as well as Social Security and veterans’ benefits.

Nacha’s Afinis Interoperability Standards will hold a virtual planning meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 28 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. ET via GoToMeeting. This will be a working meeting utilizing agile program increment planning to determine the steps for the next Afinis sprints. 

While it might be surprising to realize that Same Day ACH went live more than four years ago, ongoing enhancements to this new ACH Network capability have kept the ACH industry busy. Following the increase in the Same Day ACH dollar limit this past March, a new Same Day ACH processing opportunity arrives in March 2021, at which point “the streak will still be alive of six phases of Same Day ACH becoming effective over six consecutive calendar years,” said Michael Herd, Nacha Senior Vice President, ACH Network Administration. 

Willie Nelson couldn’t wait to get on the road again. Nor can Nacha’s Industry Verticals team. They’re used to visiting conferences far and wide to share the benefits of ACH payments for everything from charitable giving to recurring subscription payments and more.  As the pandemic has forced in-person conferences online, the team remains hard at work, only remotely. Nacha and the ACH Network have sponsored and exhibited at virtual events with anywhere from 2,000 to 20,000 attendees. 

Along with panelists from Visa and EY, Nacha's George Throckmorton recently participated in a panel on "Frictionless Finance: Using Data to Accelerate and Connect Businesses" at Sibos 2020, which is a global financial services event organized by SWIFT. The presenters discuss how data "powers payments" and is the key to frictionless commerce. 

In a recent interview with PaymentsJournal, Nacha’s Jane Larimer discusses how the ACH Network delivered stimulus payments on time.