The automated clearing house is handling more electronic transactions than ever, though growth in its electronic check category is showing signs of cooling off. The National Automated Clearing House Association reports the ACH network interchanged almost 2.1 billion transactions among financial institutions overall in the third quarter, the first time …
Read More »Canadian Payments Association Plans New Online Payments Rules
The Canadian Payments Association is planning to implement a new rule for clearing Internet transactions involving the electronic debiting of consumer accounts. The association hopes to finalize the rule in December, which if approved would take effect early next year, according to Roger Dowdall, vice president of communication and education …
Read More »A Proposed ACH Fee for Unauthorized Debits Stirs Debate
A new proposal that would require banks that originate unauthorized automated clearing house transactions to pay fees to receiving banks went out to ACH members for comment this week, but not without controversy. “This is by far the most polarizing topic the ACH industry has seen in a long time,” …
Read More »A Complement to POP Could Come from NACHA
The National Automated Clearing House Association is mulling an idea for a new point-of-sale electronic check product that it hopes might overcome some of the obstacles its existing POS service, called POP, has run into. Tentatively called “back-office conversion,” or BOC, the idea would allow merchants to send all checks …
Read More »PINless Debit Could Crimp the ACH’s Style on the Internet
Although Internet transactions have become a highly popular form of payment on the automated clearing house network, the emergence of direct debit online may stunt the growth of Web ACH transactions, an executive with a major Internet payment processor said today. Internet payments, which the National Automated Clearing House Association …
Read More »Fed Says ARC, Check 21 Will Eat More and More into Check Volume
The volume of paper checks processed by the Federal Reserve is falling at a rate of 10% to 11% so far this year and is expected to plunge another 13% to 15% in 2005, according to James M. Lyon, first vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. This …
Read More »Moneris Introduces Check Conversion to Complement Credit, Debit
Moneris Solutions U.S. Group, Chicago, has rolled out a check-conversion and check-authorization service for merchants at the point of sale that combines with the processor's credit and debit card product. The company says it is introducing the new offering to round out its arsenal of processing services for merchant clients …
Read More »The Fed Plans for Nine More Check-Office Closings by Early 2006
The Federal Reserve Banks announced today they plan to shutter check-processing operations at nine facilities during 2005 and early 2006. The Fed now plans to consolidate check operations in 23 remaining locations. In a statement, the Fed says the decision “respond[s] to the nation's increasing substitution of electronic payments for …
Read More »J.P. Morgan Reaps a Windfall from Lockbox Check Conversion
The recent surge in transactions in the category of electronic checks called accounts-receivable conversion (ARC) comes as no surprise to the banks that are playing a major role in moving utilities, insurers, retailers, credit card companies, and other major consumer billers from paper checks to electronic transactions on the automated …
Read More »A New NACHA Rule Would Combat Returns on All ACH Debits
The national network for the automated clearing house system is sifting through comments on a new rule that would levy fines on banks that fail to reduce return rates to below 1% for all client originators and for all categories of ACH transactions. Within a week or so, says the …
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