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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 158 / Thursday, August 19, 2021 / Proposed Rules
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I. Background Title 31 CFR part 210 Part 210
governs the use of the ACH Network by Federal agencies. The ACH Network is a nationwide electronic fund transfer system that provides for the inter-bank clearing of electronic credit and debit transactions and for the exchange of payment-related information among participating financial institutions.
The ACH Network facilitates payment transactions between several participants. These participants include the:
Originator: A company or individual that agrees to initiate an ACH
entry according to an arrangement with a Receiver.
Originating Depository Financial Institution ODFI: An institution that receives the payment instruction from the Originator and forwards the ACH
entry to the ACH Operator.
ACH Operator: A central clearing facility that receives entries from ODFIs, distributes the entries to appropriate Receiving Depository Financial Institutions, and performs settlement functions for the financial institutions.
Receiving Depository Financial Institution RDFI: An institution that receives entries from the ACH Operator and posts them to the account of its depositors Receivers.
Receiver: An organization or consumer that has authorized an Originator to initiate an ACH entry to the Receivers account with the RDFI.
Third-Party Service Provider: An entity other than the Originator, ODFI, or RDFI that performs any functions on behalf of the Originator, ODFI, or RDFI
in connection with processing ACH
entries. These functions may include, for example, creating ACH files on behalf of an Originator or ODFI, or acting as a sending point or receiving point on behalf of an ODFI or RDFI.
Rights and obligations among participants in the ACH Network are governed by Nachas Operating Rules &
Guidelines. The Operating Rules &
Guidelines establish standards for sending and receiving ACH entries, provide specifications for the electronic transmission of transaction information, set forth the rights and obligations of the entities listed above when transmitting, receiving or returning ACH entries, and cover other related matters. The Operating Rules & Guidelines also provide guidance regarding best practices to ACH Network participants.
There is an industry consensus that the Operating Rules & Guidelines provide a uniform set of standards for ACH
transactions and that these standards enable efficient transaction processing.

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Part 210 incorporates the Operating Rules & Guidelines by reference, with certain exceptions. From time to time, the Fiscal Service amends Part 210 to address changes that Nacha periodically makes to the Operating Rules &
Guidelines or to revise the regulation as otherwise appropriate. Given their coverage across the payment system and to ensure consistent application to all ACH Network participants, the Federal Government generally adopts changes to the Operating Rules & Guidelines unless the changes address enforcement and compliance of the Operating Rules &
Guidelines, would adversely impact government operations, or are irrelevant to Federal agency participation in the ACH Network.
Currently, Part 210 incorporates the 2019 Operating Rules & Guidelines, subject to certain exceptions. Nacha has adopted several changes since the publication of the 2019 Operating Rules & Guidelines, as reflected in the 2021
Operating Rules & Guidelines and supplements thereto.1 We are proposing to incorporate in Part 210 most, but not all, of these changes.
We are requesting public comment on all the proposed amendments to Part 210.
II. Summary of Proposed Rule Changes Since the publication of the 2019
Operating Rules & Guidelines, Nacha published two versions of the Operating Rules & Guidelines, the 2020 Operating Rules & Guidelines and the 2021
Operating Rules & Guidelines. Below, we outline the major changes that were published in these updates.
A. 2020 Operating Rules & Guidelines Changes The 2020 Operating Rules &
Guidelines proposed several changes to the Operating Rules and Guidelines.
These changes included raising the Same Day ACH dollar limit, differentiating the codes associated with certain return transactions, modifying data security requirements, clarifying fraud detection standards for WEB Debit transactions, and adding a new Same Day ACH processing window.
Same Day ACH Dollar Limit Increase On March 31, 2021, Nacha approved a rule change to update the Same Day ACH per-transaction dollar limit from 1 The 2021 Operating Rules & Guidelines also incorporates changes that Nacha previously adopted and incorporated into the 2020 Operating Rules & Guidelines. This Notice of Proposed Rulemaking also highlights applicable changes to the Operating Rules & Guidelines that were incorporated into the 2020 Operating Rules &
Guidelines.

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$100,000 to $1,000,000. At implementation, both Same Day ACH
credits and Same Day ACH debits will be eligible for Same Day ACH
processing up to $1,000,000 per transaction. Nachas rule will become effective on March 18, 2022 for all nonFederal Government ACH Network participants.
We propose to adopt this rule, effective March 18, 2022. Acceptance of this rule will enable individuals and entities to make Same-Day ACH
payments of up to $1,000,000 to the government and will enable Federal payments in the same amount. Failure to adopt this rule at the same time as other ACH Network participants may prevent clearance and processing of certain high-value transactions. For example, a taxpayer would be unable to make a tax payment exceeding $100,000
to the Federal Government via SameDay ACH, even though it could initiate a similarly-sized Same-Day ACH
payment to a private party. The failed transaction and resulting confusion could negatively impact both the taxpayer and the Federal Government.
Differentiating Unauthorized Return Codes The 2020 Operating Rules &
Guidelines changed the usage of certain Nacha Return Reason Codes, which afforded financial institutions more insight into the reason why a transaction was returned.
Under the prior rules, Nacha used one Return Reason Code the R10 code as a catch-all to identify transactions that were returned for several underlying return reasons, including some for which a valid authorization existed.
Under the revised Rule, Nacha repurposed another Return Reason Code the R11 code to allow ACH network participants to more readily identify ACH transactions that are being returned due to an error, even though an authorization exists for the transaction e.g., if the authorization is for a different amount and/or date. The newly re-purposed code is used only to identify the return of a debit transaction in which there is an error, but for which there is an authorization.2
The Operating Rules & Guidelines will treat returned transactions using either code R10 and R11 as unauthorized. However, an Originator will be permitted to correct the underlying error in an R11 return if possible. Subject to certain other requirements, the Originator may be 2 The 2021 Operating Rules & Guidelines implements a second phase of this rule. This second phase is discussed below.

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