Increasing the Same Day ACH Dollar Limit to $10 Million

This rule amendment will raise the per-entry dollar limit for Same Day ACH from $1 million per payment to $10 million per payment. The effective date is September 17, 2027.

Details

The new rule will increase the Same Day ACH dollar limit to $10 million per payment.

The increase will apply to all Same Day ACH payments.

All eligible SEC Codes (Other dollar limits for ARC, BOC, POP, RCK and XCK entries would still apply. IATs would remain ineligible for SDA).
Credits and debits.
Consumer and business payments.
Using all three Same Day ACH settlement windows.

Implementing the increase for both debit and credit Same Day ACH Entries will maintain uniformity of eligibility for Same Day ACH and preserve the utility of same-day reversals (e.g., a reversing debit of an erroneous credit).

Increasing the Same Day ACH dollar limit is expected to improve Same Day ACH use cases and contribute to additional adoption.

Many specific use cases will be enhanced by increasing the dollar limit.
Some ACH Originators may need a higher percentage of their ACH payments to be eligible for Same Day ACH in order to justify adopting Same Day ACH.

Effective date: September 17, 2027.

Technical

The dollar limit for Same Day ACH will correspond to recent dollar limit increases for other account-based payment systems:

RTP® raised the per payment limit from $1 million to $10 million in June 2025.
FedNow® increased its limit from $1 million to $10 million in November 2025.

Parity across relevant payment systems can increase efficiency of operations and reduce confusion for participants, particularly businesses and other organizations that use these systems.

Consistent dollar limits across multiple payment systems can enhance resiliency.

RFC Results

A Request For Comment (RFC) was issued in 4Q 2025 proposing to raise the per-transaction limit for Same Day ACH Entries to $10 million. One hundred seventeen responses were received.

87% of all respondents support raising the Same Day ACH dollar limit.
81% support increasing the limit to $10 million. Other responses included $2-3 million, $5 million and greater than $10 million.
74% of respondents believe the dollar limit should be the same for all Same Day ACH entries.
Respondents indicated the use cases that could see the greatest benefit from a higher dollar limit include B2B payments, payroll funding and cash concentration.
79% of respondents believe the estimated impacts of this proposed change are manageable and proportionate to the anticipated benefits.
While 77% percent of respondents either supported the proposed March 19, 2027 effective date or would prefer it to be earlier, moving the effective date to September 17, 2027 will give industry participants additional time for awareness, education, and implementation.

Effective date: September 17, 2027.

Impact

Anticipated Benefits

Increasing the dollar limit is anticipated to enhance many Same Day ACH use cases by making a greater percentage of an Originator’s payments eligible for Same Day ACH.

Business-to-business payments: Businesses, government agencies and other organizations will be able to use Same Day ACH for vendor and supply chain invoices up to $10 million
Tax payments: Businesses and organizations may use Same Day ACH for remittance of tax payments that exceed the current $1 million limit.
Cash concentration: Businesses and other organizations that concentrate account balances into central accounts can do so using either Same Day ACH credits or debits up to $10 million.
Payroll funding: While payroll credits are typically not above $1 million, many payroll files are funded using an ACH debit. Using a Same Day ACH debit up to $10 million could increase liquidity and interest earning potential for an employer, or reduce credit risk for a payroll provider.
Insurance claims: Claim payments in excess of $1 million would benefit from a higher Same Day ACH limit.
Reversals: A higher dollar limit will enable more reversals to be made on a same-day basis, including the reversal of both Same Day ACH and non-Same Day forward transactions.

A greater number of ACH payments, and especially ACH dollar volume, will be eligible for Same Day ACH, enhancing Same Day ACH use cases.

The annual value of new ACH dollars that could be eligible for Same Day ACH is estimated to be $7-8 trillion.

Implementing the increase for both debit and credit Same Day ACH Entries will preserve the utility of Reversing Entries and funding use cases.

Anticipated Impacts

All Participants:

A dollar limit increase will result in a larger amount of dollars settling at several times throughout the day – 1:00 pm; 5:00 pm, and 6:00 pm Eastern Time.

All ACH participants should understand, analyze and plan for these dollar flows within their organizations.

What are the potential impacts of higher-dollar Same Day ACH credits settling at these times?
What are the potential impacts of higher-dollar Same Day ACH debits settling at these times?
By identifying higher dollar days prior to the effective date, DFIs may be better able to prepare for this change. For example, quarterly tax payment due dates may experience higher dollar payments.

ODFIs:

ODFIs will need to determine whether to offer higher dollar limits to Same Day ACH Originators.

Software updates may be needed for dollar thresholds edits.
Consider reassessing some customers’ credit limits in light of higher Same Day ACH limits.

RDFIs:

Prior to implementation, RDFIs should examine current SDA dollar flows for both typical and atypical behavior and recognize if the RDFI more often finds itself in net-debit position or keeps a low reserve balance.

RDFIs should consider implementing tools and resources to identify and prepare for potential incoming late-day large dollar payments.

FedDetect Anomaly Notification from FedACH® Services can provide large-dollar alerts.
FedWire is open beyond the third Same Day ACH window, so an RDFI could arrange funding to cover an incoming transaction, if necessary.

RDFIs should consider implementing processes, tools and resources to identify and prepare for larger dollar flows and potential late-day, larger-dollar payments.

FedACH Risk® RDFI Alert Service enables RDFIs to self-configure customized notification criteria, including batch-level or item-level alerts for Same Day Settlement. Alert parameters can be tailored by transaction direction (forward or return), dollar amount, SEC code, and entry count.
FedDetect Anomaly Notification from FedACH® Services monitors daily Same Day debit totals by RTN to report atypical high-dollar Same Day forward debit batches that will settle in the third same-day window.
FedWire remains available beyond the third Same Day ACH settlement window, allowing RDFIs to provide funding when facing a net-debit settlement position.