Notes from the NACHA MEGA Meeting in Atlanta

DWT representatives attended the October NACHA MEGA meeting in Atlanta, GA to discuss recent trends in payments and ACH services.  Among the highlights from the conference were:

• Jan Estep, President and CEO of NACHA, kicked off the events with updates on recent and upcoming NACHA activities. In particular, Ms. Estep announced that the proposal to implement expedited funds settlement of ACH transactions did not pass a vote by the membership. NACHA continues to move ahead on other initiatives to facilitate P2P payments (see our prior post on NACHA’s recent proposed rulemaking on P2P ACH standards).

• Industry representatives from leading payment service providers discussed how providers and banks are increasingly collaborating on new business models to take advantage of the cost efficiencies of the ACH network. For example, to overcome the lag in ACH funds settlement, these parties are sharing the risk for immediate crediting of fund, which is intended to drive new ACH opportunities in mobile wallets and POS transactions.

• Federal and industry security specialists captured the attention of the audience as they discussed their experiences dealing with and fighting against IT and other security concerns, from prosecuting international ACH fraudsters to protecting data networks and systems from internal breaches. Panelists cited to the NSA's various Information Assurance guidance, including guides on Security Configuration.

• Members involved in the health care industry lamented the difficulties of implementing digital payment solutions among various participants in health care. In particular, panelists and audience members both cited to the use of ACH (or lack thereof) for provider-patient payments, leading many to call for a simple and cost-efficient solution that both providers and patients can adopt quickly and easily.

• With many banks in attendance, one of the more popular panels of the conference discussed the new international remittance rule (which we explained in detail here and here) and its impact on both providers and consumers. Panelists explained how the rule would effectively shift significant risk and liability to the remittance provider, leading to much angst among the audience. Some speculated that the rule could have the unintended consequence of harming consumers by eliminating smaller niche providers that serve low-income consumers, increasing foreign exchange rates to account for increased liabilities, or reducing the availability of service as providers cut service in order to qualify for the 100 annual remittances exemption. At the same time, panelists expect to see banks partner with established remittance providers whose core business includes international remittances who would be responsible for compliance with the new rule.

For a complete list of upcoming events in which members of the Davis Wright Tremaine payments team will participate, please see our Events page.