Everyone knows that faster is better, right? But is it always?
One of the most common payment strategy topics gaining traction with our clients lately is the growing popularity of posting received Automated Clearing House (ACH) credits to customer accounts earlier than required by the ACH rules. FIs have been posting ACH credits early for a couple of reasons. First, there’s the obvious customer-service benefit of providing accountholders faster access to their funds. Everybody likes money that moves fast. In addition though, FIs are feeling the heat of growing competition with non-FI organizations who use this practice as a competitive differentiator. More money sooner seems like an easy win when trying to one-up competitors.
However, as we’ve assisted many clients in adopting the operational and marketing tools to implement early posting of ACH credits, we’ve encountered three consistent takeaways institutions should consider when posting ACH credits early.
Protect your Reputation. You’re Only “Early” Once!
There’s no question your account holders will love receiving their funds early. But getting paid “early” quickly becomes the expectation for recurring entries, and, as a receiving FI, you aren’t in control of when the file is transmitted to you. If the sender or its FI has processing issues, it’s your call center that gets the bad news first. And, if your account holder schedules recurring transfers out of their accounts and the funding credit is perceived to be late (meaning it’s not early), it can lead to a chain of NSFs and fees for your account holder.
Identifying ACH Credit Types is a Challenge
Some FIs choose a policy of only posting certain types of credit entries, such as payroll, early. Nacha recently implemented a rule taking effect in 2026 that requires originators to standardize the descriptions of their payroll and e-commerce purchases. This will make it easier, but not foolproof to selectively early post certain types of credits. Unfortunately, there is no enforcement method to compel originators to use the correct descriptors. This means your ability to selectively post certain types of credits early and provide a universal experience to your account holders will only be as effective as the originators are in adopting these new format requirements.
Settlement Risk
Posting credits early increases your FI’s settlement/float risk from a few hours to one or two days. While this should be a relatively small risk, it should be well understood by your senior management and recon teams, and your recon team should be sure it has the tools to reconcile received ACH activity.
Still not quite sold on whether to adopt early posting of ACH Credits? We’ve guided many Wespay Advisors clients through the pros and cons, and we’d love to help you too. Reach out to learn more!
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