Nacha is the electronic system steward who links all U.S. bank accounts and facilitates the movement of money between them. The company says that in 2019, $55.8 trillion went through its Automated Clearing House (ACH) Network.

Nacha is a non-profit association, previously known as the National Automated Clearinghouse Association, which is funded by the financial institutions that use its network. Nacha and the Interactive Financial eXchange (IFX) Forum, an international industry association that develops financial data system specifications, merged in 2018.

NACHA’s Starting Point

With the merger of several regional bodies, Nacha was created in 1974. It was originally part of the Association of American Bankers.

Innovations such as direct payroll deposit, electronic benefits deposit, and automated credit card transactions have been instrumental in developing and standardising them.

More recently, under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, it has taken over the task of allowing the processing of B2B health insurance payments. Nacha now administers the standard of Healthcare Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) supporting HIPAA-compliant transactions between health plans and providers that allow payment information to travel, simplifying providers’ accounting procedures.

NACHA’s Big Leap

Nacha unveiled an initiative called the Faster Payments Playbook in November 2019 that aims to enable customers to “pay anyone, anywhere, at any time with near-immediate availability of funds.”

Nacha also offers education and accreditation services; industry involvement with financial institutions, businesses and government; and resources for advocacy.

The Nacha API Standardization Industry Group (ASIG) supports the advancement and use within the U.S. financial services industry of standardised application programming interfaces (APIs).