US automated clearing house Nacha is proposing the creation of a US equivalent of the UK's Faster Payments service, with new rules enabling same-day settlement of transactions over the ACH network.
Current ACH settlement in the US operates on a T+1 model for debit transactions and one or two banking days in the future for a credit.
Nacha's proposals would preserve these existing features, while adding a new premium-packaged 'Expedited Processing and Settlement' window as a mandatory ACH network-wide capability.
Nacha says the proposals - marking the first change in ACH settlement schedules in more than 15 years - would meet consumer and regulatory demands for faster, more efficient processing, bring the US into line with overseas markets and improve the competitiveness of the national network against newer alternative payment channels.
"Alternatively, a failure to act could have negative consequences," says Nacha. "Such as a proliferation of faster clearing arrangements taking place off-Network among a limited number of parties; the inhibition of innovation on the ACH Network and the development of new applications; a migration of ACH payments to alternative payments channels; or externally imposed solutions with potentially inflexible requirements and timelines."
Nacha says the systems integration steps required by banks to deal with the introduction of new settlement windows in the daily processing schedule would represent a "low-to-medium effort".
The ACH is inviting member banks to respond to the proposals by 18 November.
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