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NACHA Publishes its Rules Online

F or the first time, the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) Operating Rules are available online. The ACH Rules Online - available at http://www.achrulesonline.org - is an electronic version of the print book and includes the same information and features.

The NACHA Operating Rules in its entirety, New Rules for 2002, Corporate Guidelines, a Quick Find Section, Regulation E, and the Electronic Fund Transfer Act all will be accessible on the Web site. Changes and amendments to the rules also will be posted as soon as they are approved. The site is fully searchable by keyword, and users will have the ability to bookmark up to 15 pages and save up to 15 searches. The NACHA Operating Rules standardize payment formats for the ACH Network and define the rights, obligations and warranties of parties involved in ACH payments. Operating rules provide a uniform business and legal framework for the exchange of payments, which enhances participants' confidence in the safety and reliability of the payments system.

"The ACH Rules Online will be a convenient online reference tool for users of the Automated Clearing House Network," said Elliott C. McEntee, President and CEO of NACHA. "The ACH Rules Online Web site is the product of extensive market research as well as recommendations from NACHA members and their customers."

NACHA says having the rules posted on the Web will save members time and money. To access the ACH Rules Online, you must have purchased a print edition of the 2002 ACH Rules or the 2002 ACH Rules Corporate Edition. These publications are available on NACHA's Payments Publications Online catalog at http://pubs.nacha.org. The member price for the 2002 ACH Rules is $33; the non-member price is $55. A Corporate Edition is $17 for members, $37 for non-members.

The ACH Network serves 20,000 financial institutions, 3.5 million businesses and 100 million individuals. It commonly is used for direct deposit of payroll and government benefits such as Social Security, direct payment of consumer bills, business-to-business payments, federal tax payments and, increasingly, e-checks and e-commerce payments. In 2000 there were 6.9 billion ACH payments made worth more than $20 trillion.

NACHA is the leading organization in developing electronic solutions to improve the payments system. NACHA represents more than 12,000 financial institutions through direct memberships and a network of regional payments associations, and 650 organizations through its industry councils.

NACHA develops operating rules and business practices for the Automated Clearing House (ACH) Network and for electronic payments in the areas of Internet commerce, electronic bill and invoice presentment and payment (EBPP, EIPP), e-checks, financial electronic data interchange (EDI), international payments, and electronic benefits transfer (EBT).

Visit NACHA on the Internet at www.nacha.org.