ACH Payments File Testing for Community and smaller Regional US Banks

In the dynamic landscape of financial transactions, Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments has remained a crucial component for facilitating cost effective electronic fund transfers since its introduction in the early 1970’s.

It has grown to such an extent that it now represents nearly 72% of the value of all core non-cash payments, and there is continued innovation in ACH Services, e.g. with the recent launch of the FedACH Risk management service. All banks play a pivotal role in ensuring the seamless execution of these ACH payments, and robust testing procedures are essential to guarantee accuracy, security, and compliance. However, smaller regional and community banks do not always have equal access to expensive and powerful automated testing solutions which could help them improve their processes and save costs. 

Understanding ACH Payments: 

Before diving into the complexities of ACH payments file testing, a few basics of the network. The ACH network serves as a secure and efficient means of electronically transferring funds between banks, allowing for various transactions, including direct deposits, bill payments, and business-to-business payments. ACH payments are governed by the National Automated Clearing House Association (Nacha), which sets the rules and formats to which all ACH payment messages must conform.  

The Importance of ACH Payments File Testing: 

Testing ACH payments messages is crucial for several reasons. First and foremost, accuracy is paramount in financial transactions, and any errors or discrepancies can lead to financial losses and damage to reputation. Additionally, non-compliance with Nacha rules and regulations may lead to exceptions, return payments, longer processing times and inefficient payment processes. And finally, bank clients will often submit ACH files that the bank simply cannot process because the files don’t comply with the Nacha file specifications. Identifying and explaining the errors to bank clients is often a large effort for bank staff, results in a negative customer experience if not done efficiently, and can cause delays in onboarding customers to ACH payment services. 

Automated Payment File Testing Solutions:  

Leveraging automated testing technology can significantly increase the efficiency and accuracy of payment file testing. These tools can simulate various scenarios, validate data, check formatting, and generate comprehensive reports.  

Choosing the Best Payments Testing Provider: 

• Staying up to date with the regulatory landscape: A good solutions provider stays ahead of the latest regulatory mandates and updates to payment messaging formats. 
• Scalability: With the introduction of FedNow and other real-time payment options such as RTP from The Clearing House, your bank may want to expand their testing functionality beyond just ACH in the future. A good payment testing provider has the capacity to support all standard payment formats such as ISO 20022 as well as proprietary formats to help your bank adjust to the times. 
• Access to error libraries: A good provider will provide access to a comprehensive database of potential errors along with explanations on how they should be fixed.
• Reliability: Providers should be able to guarantee the uptime of their system. A system uptime above 99% is achievable with the proactive management and system updates employed by the provider on a regular basis.
• Security: In the banking environment with its sensitive dataset, it is vital to pick a provider that is certified (e.g. SOC 2, ISO27001 etc.) and equipped to protect your confidential data. Better yet not even have access to it.  
• Latest Technology: Cloud-based solutions are now the norm and the redundancy it brings with it is unparalleled by on-prem solutions. 
• Cost-Benefit-Analysis: Some of these testing tools can be expensive, even for big banks. Ensuring that the benefits justify the costs is important for banks looking to improve their efficiencies and reduce overall costs. In most cases, these cost savings can be directly quantified but in other cases, one can simply not be a dollar value on a greatly improved customer experience.

Conclusion: 

The ACH network provides the backbone for the payments ecosystem in the US which includes B2B payments. Banks should prioritize ACH payments file testing to guarantee accuracy, compliance, efficiency, and security. By adopting best practices and staying proactive in testing procedures, banks can ensure that their ACH payment systems not only meet current standards but also remain resilient and adaptable in the face of evolving financial landscapes.  

XMLdation is an international financial messaging specialist company known for its industry-leading automated payment file testing solutions. It counts some of the biggest banks in the industry as its clients. The company has been operating since 2009 and has all the necessary practical, technical and subject matter expertise to employ these solutions in a timely and efficient manner that would benefit your bank. Its automated testing solution can save as much as 90% of testing time over traditional methods and can dramatically reduce, if not eliminate, the risk of human errors.  

It has now rolled out an easy-to-use cost-effective ACH File Testing solution specifically aimed at helping community banks and smaller regional banks increase the efficiency of their testing practices and compete more effectively with the large banks. The ACH file types supported include PPD, CCD/CCD+, CTX, WEB, TEL, ARC, and RCK. Apart from ACH, more advanced versions of the solution can support all standard payment types and standards as well as proprietary file formats. The solution is cloud-based with a guaranteed uptime of 99.3%. 

See how XMLdation’s ACH Payment File Testing solution works with our 48-hour trial, or contact us to understand how to sign up for the full Service.