EXCLUSIVE – Now that same day ACH debit payment has kicked off, National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA), the steward of Automated Clearing House (ACH), is in the final phase to implement its same-day payment vision for ACH.

That phase 3, which consists of mandatory credit availability before 5PM, is set to happen on March 16, 2018, Janet Estep, NACHA president and CEO said at the PayThink Conference yesterday.

The launch of same-day debit payments for ACH was phase two of its same-day payment plan, Estep said. The first phase was credit payments.

“Faster payments” has been one of the most commonly evoked themes at the PayThink Conference in Phoenix, with many industry veterans claiming that the speed through which payments are carried out is quickly becoming a differentiating factor for many companies, both for fintechs and financial institutions.

For ACH, Laura Lee Orcutt, Head of Product, Treasury Management at Wells Fargo said the value add for her bank was not just being able to provide their clients with the same-day payment option but with the “indirect benefit,” of speeding the return of payments.

For example, if a customer uses the same-day payment option to pay a distributor on Wednesday, and then needs to make a return on that transaction, then they can do so within the same week.

In regards to whether same-day payments have more fraud risks associated with them, Estep said that as of yet they “haven’t seen any increased fraud risks” due to the same day ACH payments.

ACH same-day debit payments were launched on Friday. This faster payments option applies to all U.S. bank accounts. It lets businesses and consumers send and receive payments, as well as payment-related information, through the ACH Network. Prior to this, all ACH debit payments, which account for about 60% of ACH volume, were next-day payments.