Increasing the Same Day ACH Dollar Limit

This rule expands the capabilities of Same Day ACH. Increasing the Same Day ACH dollar limit to $1 million per payment is expected to improve Same Day ACH use cases, and contribute to additional adoption.

Details

Increasing the dollar limit has been a frequently asked for change by ACH end-users. Most recently, a summer 2020 survey of corporate ACH end-users resulted in recommendations for Same Day ACH:

Increase or remove dollar limits
Expand processing hours and days

The dollar limit increase in March 2020 had an immediate impact on the use of Same Day ACH

The average amount of a Same Day ACH payment increased by 46% from February to April 2020
Overall Same Day ACH dollar volume increased by 86% in 2020

Technical

This rule increases the Same Day ACH dollar limit to $1 million per payment.

This rule applies to all Same Day ACH entries; consumer and business payments, credits and debits.

The effective date is March 18, 2022

Impact

Risk monitoring - Nacha frequently surveys financial institutions about Same Day ACH and risk management. In the most recent survey following the March 2020 dollar limit increase, zero financial institutions responded that they had experienced an increase in fraud that is directly attributable to the increase in the Same Day ACH dollar limit.

All of the responding financial institutions allow their ACH origination clients to originate Same Day ACH payments up to the new $100,000 limit
Almost 70% said they have some clients who, as a normal part of their business, regularly initiate transactions above the previous $25,000 limit

Anticipated Benefits - Increasing the dollar limit is anticipated to contribute to ongoing adoption of Same Day ACH.

Existing use cases would be improved by making a greater percentage eligible for Same Day ACH, such as for:

Business-to-business payments
Tax payments
Payroll funding
Insurance claim payments
Merchant settlement
Same Day Reversals of standard ACH payments
Business continuity - recovery from missed deadlines or outages

A greater percentage of ACH dollar volume becomes eligible for Same Day ACH

The percentage of ACH dollars eligible for Same Day ACH would more than double
An additional 3.5% of B2B payments will become eligible for Same Day ACH

Anticipated Impacts

A dollar limit increase would result in a larger amount of dollars settling at several times throughout the day – 1:00 p.m.; 5:00 p.m., and 6:00 p.m. (all in ET).

All ACH participants should understand and plan for these dollar flows within their organizations.

ODFIs need to determine whether to offer higher dollar limits to Same Day ACH Originators
- Higher Same Day ACH dollar limits might impact a financial institution’s assessment of its customers’ credit risks

FAQs Section

How will the dollar limit be enforced?

The ACH Operators will edit for the $1 million limit for Same Day ACH transactions, and will assign next day settlement to any transactions above the limit.

What does the dollar limit apply to?

The limit on large-dollar transactions (those ACH Entries over $1 million) applies to individual transactions; i.e., a single Same Day ACH transaction can not be for more than $1 million. There is no similar limit on the aggregate value of a batch of Same Day ACH transactions, or a file of Same Day ACH transactions. Entries submitted in a same-day processing window that are over $1 million will not be rejected by the ACH Operator, but will be processed for next-day settlement in the next available processing window.

What if my Originator wants to send more than $1 million as a Same Day ACH entry?

As with previous Same Day ACH dollar limits, transactions may not be restructured to evade the $1 million limit. For example, if a business has a loan payment of $1.5 million due, that payment would not be eligible for Same Day ACH and should not be divided and sent as multiple same-day Entries in order to avoid the per-transaction dollar limit. However, if a business is paying multiple invoices from the same supplier that each amount to $1 million or less, each invoice could be paid using a distinct Same Day ACH transaction. Originators should be educated to avoid attempts at structuring Entries in order to evade the per-transaction dollar limit. Since evasion can be a very fact specific inquiry, Nacha will consider evasion issues on a case-by-case basis.