ORLANDO, Fla.—Alexa, pay the electric bill. That’s an increasingly common request—along with the water, gas, and who knows how many other bills. As convenient as it is for consumers, it’s raising new questions for ACH Network participants.

ORLANDO, Fla.—Jane Larimer never tires of telling people “the ACH Network is thriving” and for good reason: “Because it is.” Even as new payment methods emerge, Larimer believes ACH will have a place at the table. “There’s room and opportunity for all payments,” Larimer, Nacha’s chief operating officer, told a Smarter. Faster. Payments 2019 session on the future of the ACH Network. 

ORLANDO, Fla.—JP Nicols believes it’s time to “get serious about innovation”—although his definition of innovation might differ from financial institutions’. “It’s not just ‘innovation theater,’” said Nicols, managing director of FinTech Forge. Nor is it “the fintech petting zoo.”

ORLANDO, Fla.—ACH is, and will remain, a vital part of the nation’s payment system, a senior Federal Reserve official told a Nacha conference. “We still expect the ACH Network to continue to be part of the backbone of the U.S. payment system. At the Federal Reserve we are still committed to that,” said Nell Campbell-Drake, vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

ORLANDO, Fla.—“What would your company look like if you created it today?” Tom Goodwin asked that question to make a point. 

There are banks that look at Third-Party Senders and—right or wrong—have their doubts. Wayne Gonzales gets it. 

At 36 pages, the criteria for becoming a Nacha Certified Third-Party Sender “is a little daunting when you first look at it.”

That’s what Becky Wagner thought—though she’s quick to add that Nacha helped at every step of the way. 

Payments fraud “remains rare” in the U.S., with ACH payments having the lowest fraud rate by value, a new Federal Reserve study found.