NACHA, the rulemaking authority of the nation’s automated clearing house system, is turning to an outside payments veteran to steer the electronic payments trade group through a critical phase of ambitious projects to expand the e-payments channel.
Janet O. Estep, a former U.S. Bank svp who led that institution’s transaction services division, was named president and COO, and will succeed Elliott McEntee after his retirement at the end of the year. McEntee, who has led NACHA for nearly 20 years, will retain the CEO title until his departure.
At U.S. Bank, Estep oversaw the Elan ATM & Debit Services, an issuing and processing provider for more than 2,000 banks and credit unions. Along with her 15-year background in sales, product development ant management at IBM, she comes to NACHA with some external experience that may fit the directors’ push to gain closer ties with smaller institutions and corporate end-users, according to Aite Group senior analyst Nancy Atkinson. “That’s going to be key to the future to NACHA, because they want to bring all the constituencies together,” says Atkinson.
Besides ACH network growth, Estep will take the lead on several ongoing NACHA changes, including online consumer payments and back-office conversion. NACHA is also faced with tamping down surging ACH fraud problems that led last year to new rules cracking downs on problematic originators. Next year, NACHA is expected to finalize new transactional codes to more closely identify international ACH remittances, not only to boost global cross-border activity but also to handle stiffened OFAC and AML guidelines.
