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Published on Monday, July 15, 2019

May 2019 Faster Payments Executive Summary — Educational Opportunities for Payments Professionals

Faster payments continue to rapidly evolve, leaving in its wake a potential knowledge gap for today’s payments professionals. NEACH, in conjunction with other industry leaders, are addressing the void by offering a virtual smorgasbord of educational conferences and events this spring, including NEACH’s much-anticipated annual Payments Management conference, May 14-15, 2019 at Boston’s Marriott Quincy. 

What follows is a brief summary of developments in the faster payments arena and highlights from this spring’s educational opportunities.

Nacha 

New Guidance Sheets 

Nacha recently released new guidance sheets in its ongoing efforts to help the industry prepare for new Same Day ACH enhancements. On September 20, 2019, the availability of funds for many Same Day ACH and other ACH credits will occur earlier in the day. Beginning March 20, 2020, the per-transaction dollar limit for Same Day ACH will increase to $100,000. On March 19, 2021, access to Same Day ACH transactions will be extended two hours later every business day.

Guidance sheets are available for Originating Depository Financial Institutions (ODFIs)Receiving Depository Financial Institutions (RDFIs), and Processors. These sheets, along with other related materials, are also available from Nacha’s Same Day ACH Resource Center.

In other news, Nacha recently reported several changes to its organization and its offerings, which will indirectly impact the faster payments ecosystem in months to come.

New CEO

In a surprise announcement, Nacha announced its Board of Directors has selected Jane E. Larimer as the next President and CEO of Nacha effective July 1, 2019. Nacha also unveiled a revamped visual identity to better express the single purpose that unites all of the organization’s programs and initiatives: engaging diverse stakeholders to develop rules and standards to continue advancement of the ACH Network and further a digital future of financial services interoperability.

New Corporate Experience

On May 6, 2019, Nacha also introduced the Nacha Corporate Experience, a new way of demonstrating how businesses can more effectively exchange payments and information. According to its news release, “Through a pairing of standards and advanced technology, the Nacha Corporate Experience shows how to simplify the pre-payment and post-payment processes for businesses, allowing for a fast, simple and standard end-to-end transactional experience.”

New Resource

Also of note, Nacha and its Payments Innovation Alliance launched the ACH Quick Start Tool, an online educational resource designed to help small and medium-sized businesses more readily understand and use ACH to make and receive payments for an array of use cases. Visit the ACH Quick Start online tool at ACHQuickStart.org.

The Federal Reserve

A May 6 Digital Transactions article reported that the Fed says an announcement about operating a real-time payments system is a ways off. Reportedly, the Fed will make its decision by the end of the year. It looks like we will be waiting a little bit longer before we know exactly what the Fed intends to do in this area.

Industry leaders fall on both sides of the fence when it comes to answering the question of whether the Fed should develop a RGTS system.

In an April 5, 2019, op-ed piece for The American BankerThomas Hoenig, former vice chair of the federal deposit insurance company and Bruce Summers, former operations manager for the Federal Reserve System, raise concerns about whether a real-time payments monopoly by The Clearing House, or any other entity, would put the financial system at risk.

“Handing the entirety of country’s crucial payments system to the industry’s Clearing House organization would mean the Federal Reserve would not be operationally prepared to help maintain payment and financial system stability when the nation confronts its next crisis,” state the authors.

In an April 12, 2019, op-ed piece for The American Bankerpresident and chief executive of The Clearing House James Aramanda responds, asking whether the Fed’s entry into real-time payments would do more harm than good. The article raises a number of compelling questions, including how a Federal-reserve run RGTS system might slow the progress of faster payments in the U.S., whether costs would increase for participants, and blatantly states that the notion of the Fed created its own real-time payments system is “misdirected for a number of reasons.”

NEACH will continue to report on this topic as new developments unfold.

U.S. Faster Payments Council

On May 8, 2019, Nacha and its Payments Innovation Alliance, jointly with the U.S. Faster Payments Council, announced a collaboration to further develop the Faster Payments Playbook, an educational and online decisioning platform that will help banks, credit unions and businesses develop a faster payments strategy – from concept to reality. 

The Alliance and the FPC unveiled a prototype of the online Playbook as a preview for the industry at Smarter. Faster. PAYMENTS 2019, which was held May 5-8, 2019, in Orlando.

In related news, the first in-person meeting of the U.S. Faster Payments Council will be held May 29, 2019, in Illinois. This event is open to members only.

The FPC provides members with opportunities to shape the future of faster payments through ongoing dialogue and collaborative problem solving. Membership is open to financial institutions, payments industry professionals, and individuals with a professional interest in improving the payments system. To learn how to join the Faster Payments Council, visit FasterPaymentsCouncil.org.

NEACH

NEACH’s Joe Casali, AAP, NCP, senior vice president of NEACH Payments Group is speaking at two conferences this spring. The first is Nacha’s Payments 2019 Conference, May 5-8, 2019, in Orlando, Florida. Just a week later, Casali, along with other NEACH staff, will speak at NEACH’s annual Payments Management Conference, May 14-15, 2019, at the Boston Quincy Marriott.

At Nacha’s payments conference, Casali offered a pre-conference workshop titled, “The Faster Payments Evolution.” William D. Sullivan, senior director and group manager of Government & Industry Relations at NACHA and John M. Curtis, senior vice president of Education & Training at WesPay joined him in laying out the fundamentals of faster payments and the role NACHA and the Regional Payments Associations play in the faster payments education space.

Casali also offered a second session, “Demystifying the Innovation Center Model” with co-speakers, Vasilios Roussos, managing director of the DCU FinTech Innovation Center and Colby Ross, founder & ceo of Project Finance. The session addressed how Boston’s DCU FinTech Innovation Center works and provide the FinTech perspective from a startup actively involved with the center in developing a new solution for financial services. 

Also happening this month, NEACH will hold its annual Payments Management Conference May 13-15, 2019. The event offers two days of education, networking, and opportunities. Targeted content will address today’s most pressing issues for payments executives, strategists, managers, consultants, analysts, technologists, and payments professionals.

Featured speakers at the event include NEACH staff members:

  • Sean Carter, AAP, NCP, NEACH president and CEO
  • Joe Casali, AAP, NCP, senior vice president
  • Sandy Ortins, AAP, NCP, vice president of Education
  • Liz Grayeck-Birchell, AAP, director
  • Eileen Narbutas, AAP, director

For more information on NEACH’s 2019 Payments Management Conference and other educational opportunities, visit neach.org

In Other News 

Amazon Pay has recently enabled person-to-person instant money transfers, which will enable users to make bank-to-bank transactions through the unified payments interface (UPI) available on the Amazon app.

The downside? The service is only available if you us an Android smartphone. No word yet as to whether Amazon will make this service available to iPhone users or possible timelines if they do.

For more on these stories and news on all things faster payments, visit NEACH’s Pacing Payments website.

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