This tool can be used to evaluate your level of expertise of the ACH and related payment systems, and to identify those areas that may require additional development. ACHPro was designed to make learning fun.

Why Should You Purchase ACHPro?
Updated annually to reflect the latest changes in the ACH Network, the program is valuable for ACH professionals, EFT professionals, and new employees alike. Challenge yourself and test your knowledge using ACHPro's game and scorekeeping features or use it to train others new to the ACH.

ACHPro Challenges your knowledge in two ways: Game Mode & Test Mode

ACHPro Game Mode is a fun, interactive program, which tests your skills in six competency areas:

• Payment Systems
• Marketing ACH
• Risk and the ACH
• ACH Rules and Regulations
• ACH Processing
• ACH Technical Requirements

Organized around the game board, you can play the practice game - winning game money and getting coached along the way with feedback to your answers.

In the ACHPro Test Mode timed test, you will complete all the questions and receive a score rating your performance in each category. The test is all multiple-choice, and you will complete a ""blacken the dot"" form as you answer questions, just like in a real standardized test situation.

So, whether you are looking to brush up on your payment systems skills or start a foundation which you can build upon, ACHPro is an essential tool for your professional development. 

User Access closes Friday, December 29th 

NEACH’s Innovating Payments team continues to embed itself in all aspects of transformation in the industry at large and reviews developments regularly. It’s clear, the role of operations is vital to the success of the institution. The upgrade and addition of new payment products has become table stakes. As the industry continues to accelerate, professionals will require new skills, knowledge, and abilities to succeed.

From data breaches to sophisticated social engineering schemes, fraudsters have a lot of accessible consumer and business data to successfully perpetrate tax refund fraud. We anticipate another year of challenges for RDFIs presented with investigating and handling these entries. 

In this interactive session, attendees will prepare for handling suspect transactions and answers questions like:
• What are the indicators of possible tax refund fraud? 
• When do suspect returns qualify as suspicious activity under AML?
• If we identify multiple, suspect returns on an account, how do we handle the entries?
• If we suspect tax refund fraud, does the institution have any liability?
• Are there compliance requirements beyond ACH related to tax refund fraud?

In this session attendees will:
• Analyze current trends of refund fraud.
• Discuss when an RDFI has liability or exposure to liability.
• Record sound business practices to increase detection capabilities internally.
• Document appropriate responses to suspect returns.

Instant payments are a hot topic in today's evolving payments landscape. With the ongoing growth of the RTP Network and the upcoming 2023 launch of the FedNow Instant Payment Network, many of us likely have questions about how instant payments work and want to learn why financial institutions should adopt them. In this 3-part series, NEACH answers many of these questions that have been raised. Specifically, this series of sessions will explore the instant payments landscape for attendees. In the first module, we will introduce how instant payments work, from clearing and settlement to fraud impacts in the landscape. The second module will begin to outline the steps involved in operational readiness to prepare your organization for supporting instant payments and address the steps necessary to start the adoption process with your account holders. The last module of this series will specifically discuss how the FedNow system will work, including settlement, and explore how the ISO 20022 global data standard is integrated into the core functionality of FedNow.

The Federal Reserve Bank has published their Operating Circular No. 8 for Funds Transfers through FedNow and their Operating Procedures.  It appears that launch will occur in 2023, but are you ready?  Is FedNow the route you are taking for Instant Payments or is RTP still the main solution?  Are you waiting for another solution?  Is one coming? 

Fortunately, NEACH is in a position where it is in the forefront of many of these changes and staff are in the room when the changes are being discussed. Throughout the previous year, staff at NEACH have been sharing what they hear may be coming to the payments industry. With the knowledge of why the changes are occurring and when to expect them, the NEACH staff can present the Industry Update in a manner that anyone can understand.

In this session, the speaker will recap the changes that occurred in 2022 and then shift to the 2023 landscape.  Some of the topics that will be covered are: FedNow OC8 and operating procedure update, Nacha Rules changes and an update of Regulation J.

During this interactive, fast-paced session, attendees will:
• Examine changes to Rules and Regulations that effect your organization.
• Recognize where the payments industry is, and progress being made with FedNow®.
• Identify what internal policies or procedures may need to be updated based on the changes in the industry.
• Create an Action Items list to summarize points for internal staff discussions.

Many institutions struggle with the challenges associated with managing Third-Party Sender relationships. This challenge tends to compound when the nature of a Third-Party Sender relationship is unknown, including determining who is originating and how far down the chain parties the actual Originator is. In September 2022, the Nacha Rules were updated to address the challenges associated with Nested Third-Party Senders in the ACH network. These changes included a formal definition of Third-Party Sender, a requirement for ACH Origination agreement updates regarding Nested Third-Party Senders, Third-Party Sender obligation and warranties related to Nest Third-Party Senders, and a new Nacha Risk Management portal registration requirement for ODFIs.

In this session, NEACH will explore the impact and implications to various parties related to this change. ODFIs have a unique position with Third-Party Senders because they bear the risk of these relationships and activities happening downstream. Specifically, in this session, we will explore the new definition of a Nest Third-Party Sender and provide related examples, including ACH transaction process flows, to help solidify attendees' understanding of this newly defined role. We will also review the recent rule changes' requirements, warranties, and obligations and explain the implications of these changes to the ODFI and Third-Party Senders. This session will also provide sample approaches for complying with ACH Origination Agreements, including sample agreement language. Finally, this session will discuss ODFI reporting requirements in the Nacha Risk Management Portal.

In this session attendees will:
• Explain the impact of the Nested Third-Party Sender rule changes
• Distinguish between Originator, Third-Party Sender, and Nester Third-Party Sender participants
• Evaluate the organizational impact of these changes on the attendee’s institution

Instant payment allows for near-real-time movement of funds in the U.S. financial system. Since 2019, we have been hearing of the development of a new instant payment rail to be operated under the control of the Federal Reserve. The FedNow instant payment rail is coming in 2023! Your organization is likely evaluating the potential use cases and implementation implications of launching the FedNow service to your customers and members. There is a lot to think about, including which core functionalities (receiving, sending, and request for payment) you will launch and how quickly you will expand to others.

Much of the operating rules and structure surrounding this new payment rail have been unknown. However, in 2022, Regulation J was updated to include FedNow considerations, and the Fed released the FedNow Service Operating Procedures. Has your institution started to explore these FedNow Service Operating Procedures? If not, do not worry because NEACH is here to help you understand these procedures and how your organization should prepare to meet its requirements once you launch your FedNow service offerings.

In this session, NEACH will thoroughly explore the new FedNow Service Operating Procedures, discussing the operational impact and overall considerations related to general expectations, testing and certification, messaging types, formats, requirements, fraud reporting, and more. The goal for attendees is to walk away with a foundational understanding of the rules and what they mean and establish a plan for how they will comply with any associated requirements. Come to this session prepared to interact and ask questions. FedNow is new to us all and collaborating with NEACH and your peers is the best way to help you understand and prepare for a successful FedNow launch.


During this session attendees will:
• Discuss the high-level considerations and impact of the FedNow Operating procedures
• Recall at a high-level how the operating procedures impact the processing of FedNow transactions
• Recognition which areas of the operating rules will directly apply to the attendee’s institution’s FedNow-related offerings

Social engineering is the use of deception to manipulate individuals into divulging sensitive information or into completing a task for fraudulent purposes. It has been around for a long, long time and comes in many forms. In 2022, we saw some new methods fraudsters used to target organization staff to compromise valuable financial data or accounts. 

Everyone who works with consumers, from call centers to frontline staff, customer service to product development, has the ability to help detect and mitigate social engineering fraud – if you know what to look for. Properly educated employees can be the solution you need to defeat social engineering.

*Course prerequisite encouraged: understand the organizations current security structure, especially existing employee education, security protocols when handling or providing consumer-level data, etc.

Using actual cases and recordings of social engineering, attendees will: 
• Evaluate current methods used to compromise data.
• Document common practices of bad actors to collect PII, including account credentials.
• Recognize common red flags of an attempt.
• Define an action plan to increase internal security awareness. 
• Record tips and resources to reduce exposure.

Let’s round up some regulations and lay them out in an easy-to-understand way. This session will touch on a number of regulations and explain how they impact your institution and its processing. Attendees will be asked to participate in answering polling questions to ensure understanding of the topics covered.

Attendees will leave the session with: 
• The ability to differentiate between the requirements of each regulation covered
• An understanding of how these regulations apply to their financial institution's payment programs and practices
• A curiosity for examining their internal policies and procedures surrounding the topics covered

Businesses are driven by effective policy management. Policies establish the framework by which the organization operates. When effective policies are in place, an organization can then implement services, processes, and associated procedures to ensure that they run successfully. Managers are in an essential position concerning policy management as they often work between the strategic high-level and long-term objectives and the operational processes that maintain shorter-term goals and day-to-day activities.  

This session is a part of a management series of live webinars being offered in 2023. In this session geared toward payment function managers, NEACH will explore the topic of policy management by exploring the role a manager plays in payment-related policies. Managers should implement policies that effectively represent the organization's strategic objectives, align risk management practices to the organization's enterprise risk management program, and provide practical guidelines by which products, processes, and procedures can be established. Specifically, this session will explore the purpose of policies, discuss what makes up an effective policy, dive into the best practices for maintaining and overseeing policies, and demonstrate how to develop a sample ACH policy that provides the framework for managers to go back to their organization and manage policies under their purview.

In this session attendees will:
• Evaluate the success of existing payment-related policies and address gaps as needed
• Formulate plans for the ongoing management of policies under the attendee’s purview
• Construct and maintain necessary policies as appropriate to the organization’s structure and needs