New ACH Payment Compliance Standards—What Your Firm Needs to Know

As the demand for online payments continues to increase at a rapid pace, the threat of fraudulent activity is growing as well.

In response, the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA)—the leading authority governing the automated clearing house (ACH) payments network in the US—is rolling out new safeguards to protect firms and their clients from fraud.

Effective March 19th, new guidance from NACHA will require businesses and firms across industries to acquire “account validation” on all ACH transactions.

Account validation is the process of verifying that the bank account submitted for an ACH payment is indeed valid. This validation can keep businesses from unknowingly accepting fraudulent payments and having to contend with the financial losses and repercussions that follow.

If your accounting firm lets clients pay invoices by ACH, here are a few things you should know:

• First, contact your payment processor to ensure that they are (1) aware of the NACHA rule and (2) have taken the proper steps to ensure you are compliant.
  
  
• Starting tomorrow, your firm will be noncompliant if you allow clients to enter their account and routing number without account validation. There must be this additional check to ensure the account is valid.
  
  
• The simplest way to stay in compliance is for your firm to use a payment platform that allows your clients to securely and directly link their bank account(s) to your firm’s payment platform (platforms that use integration tools like Plaid are a safe bet).
  
  
• This new requirement will not affect credit and debit card payments.

If you're unsure if your current process meets the requirements, or if you're in need of a new payment platform that will keep you compliant, contact us at team@aiwyn.ai.

Our platform provides a compliant, secure, streamlined, and user-friendly payment process that will ensure your firm is not at risk.