Following the Federal Reserve Board's approval of enhancements to its automated clearing house service that will require financial institutions to process same-day payments, credit union trades expressed concern about the potential impact on small CUs.
Under the new system, morning settlements should be cleared by 1 p.m., and afternoon settlements by 5 p.m. Originating institutions will be required to pay a 5.2-cent fee to receiving banks for each same-day electronic payment.
"Same-day ACH is a game-changer, as it will enable new options for consumers, businesses and government entities that want to move money faster," Janet Estep, chief executive of Nacha, said in a Wednesday new release.
Same-day payments also "will serve as a building block for enabling payments innovation in the development of new products and services," Estep said.
While both NAFCU and CUNA said credit unions support same-day ACH and speeding up payments, they also were concerned about the rule's impact on small credit unions.
"In comments to NACHA and the Federal Reserve, CUNA expressed concerns with the requirements that all receiving financial institutions have the ability to receive and post same-day ACH payments," said Ryan Donovan, chief advocacy officer at CUNA. "While we support the goal of a faster payments system, we believe more could have been done to consider the implementation and other ongoing costs credit unions will face - particularly our smaller credit unions."
NAFCU's Carrie Hunt agreed: "While NAFCU and our members believe that ubiquitous same-day ACH capability represents an improvement for the nation's payment system, we continue to have significant concerns regarding the board's inadequate interbank fee and for credit unions to affordably receive, process and settle these payments in near-real time."
Nacha, in Herndon, Va., is the bank industry group that oversees the ACH network. Nacha's membership approved the rule proposal in May.
The interbank fee is meant to help offset costs of implementing same-day transactions, including upfront investments needed to immediately accept, post and make funds available.
Payments now tend to be settled the day after a transaction takes place. The FedACH SameDay Service is optional to financial institutions both on the sending and receiving ends of payments transactions, although fewer than 100 institutions have opted in since the offering became available.
The changes emulate those of Nacha's Same Day ACH rule, which was approved in May and followed by a Fed comment-seeking period. Both the Fed rule and Nacha's rule will go into effect Sept. 23, 2016.
