Independent Banker - September 2020 - 4

EXPERTS
Game-changing industry insights
for community bankers
Help your business customers
make the best use of ACH
Today, standard and Same Day ACH are for businesses-
and banks-of all sizes. Are you maximizing awareness?
How has the ACH Network risen to meet the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic?
Throughout the pandemic, normal ACH Network payment processing continued
uninterrupted. When the federal government announced stimulus payments, it relied
on Direct Deposit-ACH's best-known feature-to quickly move hundreds of billions of
dollars to millions of Americans needing assistance. For those who became jobless,
most states used Direct Deposit to pay unemployment benefits.
Michael Herd
Nacha Senior Vice President,
ACH Network Administration
703-561-1100
nacha.org/sda
Many businesses found it was difficult to send and receive checks, but that ACH payments
can very easily be sent and received remotely. And Direct Deposit continues to deposit
salaries, Social Security and other benefits into bank accounts for millions of Americans
on time, eliminating the added stress of collecting and depositing paper checks.
Why should ACH and Same Day ACH be part of a community bank's payments strategy?
The ACH Network is a thriving payments system that your current-and potential-
customers are either using or should be using. Every business and organization,
regardless of size, collects payments from customers, has payroll to meet and bills
to pay. These are core to a community bank's relationship with its customers, and
the ACH is ideal for handling these types of payments.
Community bankers tell us they want to compete against other providers. That means
having the latest tools available, including Same Day ACH. If you're not offering
Same Day ACH, your competitors most likely are.
The ACH also shows how community banks can come to their customers' assistance.
During the pandemic, when people couldn't be in their offices to handle checks, it wasn't
a problem for businesses using ACH to pay their employees, pay their bills, and collect
payments from customers.
How can community banks make greater use of ACH and Same Day ACH?
Even a small business may occasionally be late with a payroll file or bill payment or have an
unpredictable and urgent need to make a payment. Do your existing ACH customers know
about Same Day ACH and have you provided them access? Oftentimes, the emergency
payment scenario provides the opening to talk to customers about Same Day ACH.
Step one is simply availability and education. Our experience has shown that when many
businesses have had the need to make a same-day payment, their banks never knew
because the businesses didn't know Same Day ACH was available. Community banks
often provide personalized service to their customers, which is why they should be
at the forefront of providing new capabilities like Same Day ACH.
Learn more at nacha.org/sda

http://www.nacha.org/sda http://www.nacha.org/sda

Independent Banker - September 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Independent Banker - September 2020