Fraud prevention should be top of mind for all financial institutions. New Nacha Rules taking effect soon are intended to reduce the incidence of successful fraud attempts and improve the recovery of funds after frauds have occurred. And a new feature in Nacha’s Risk Management Portal helps banks and credit unions in that effort. 

“The new Rules focus on fraud detection and recovery across all parties in the ACH Network,” said Jeanette Fox, AAP, Nacha Associate Managing Director, Risk Investigations and ACH Network Risk. “RDFIs have a role to play in the detection of and recovery from fraud.”

A new module called Secure Exchange is now available in the Portal. When authorized users log in to the Portal and go to Secure Exchange, they’ll find two new forms: RDFI Notification of Status of Return Request and RDFI Notification of Exemption from Funds Availability Requirement. Each form enables an RDFI to comply with a specific obligation in the Nacha Rules.

“Each form has fields for the RDFI to complete, after which they can immediately send it to the ODFI, or save it as a draft to send later,” Fox explained. 

An RDFI does not have to figure out who to send it to, because ODFI contacts for ACH Operations and ACH Risk/Fraud are automatically added. The RDFI has the option to add contacts from other categories found in the ACH Contact Registry.

Once the form is sent, those contacts at the ODFI get an email telling them there’s a message waiting in Secure Exchange. Any or all of them can log in to the Portal to collect the form and then open, read and save it.

Recipients are not able to reply to senders through the Portal, as these are one-way notifications for use in specific situations defined in the Rules.

Fox stressed that Nacha will not know anything about a completed form’s contents.

“Nacha’s view is limited to the sender and the receiver(s) of the form, along with the date/time stamp on each end,” said Fox. “In fact, each form carries a disclaimer stating in part that it’s not from Nacha, rather from a Risk Management Portal user.”

In order for the Secure Exchange to be as effective as possible, Fox offered a timely reminder on a related matter.

“Because Secure Exchange relies on the ACH Contact Registry, this is a good time for all financial institutions to take a look at their Registry entries and make sure they’re up to date,” said Fox. “Not only will you be helping colleagues at other banks and credit unions, it’s also a Nacha Rules requirement.”

Authorized users may log in to Nacha’s Risk Management Portal.