The Pulse

March 2021

In this issue:

Note from Jim
Nacha Rules Changing
Prenote Change
Holiday Hours
Add a Pay-Now Button
Password Change Coming
Has Your Address Changed?
Fraud Corner
ACH Network's Record Growth

Did you know?

The Kotapay Help page consists of several help documents, including fraud resources and how-to videos.

Customer Support Tips

When setting up new clients, ensure you are putting transaction estimates (round up slightly) that reflect processing volume. If you don’t know, ask your customer. This is a part of knowing your customer and can help us detect unusual activity.

If your client is an individual paying an individual from their personal account, be sure to check the consumer/personal account box on the New Client Information Form.

ACH Rules

Stay up-to-date with the most current NACHA Rules. The Nacha Rules are available for FREE online by simply setting up a Basic User account. Click here.

Video

Hear what customers have to say about Kotapay! Click here

It’s been a year since the pandemic placed its grip on the nation. All of us have discovered new ways to conduct our business, how we communicate with friends, family, prospects and customers. With spring approaching and businesses starting to open again, it’s a sign of hope that our nation is moving towards our "next normal".

From all of us, thank you for your business and continued trust in Kotapay.

Sincerely,

Jim Haug, Director of Kotapay

Upcoming Nacha Rules Change

Effective March 19^th, 2021, an upcoming Nacha rules change creates an additional Same Day ACH processing window expanding ACH availability. Kotapay will now accept Same Day ACH files until 2:00pm CT. Read more about this Rules change here.

As a reminder Same Day ACH is available for transactions up to $100,000 and the wire must be received by Kotapay prior to 2:00pm CT.

Effective June 30^th, 2021, ACH Originators and Third-Party Senders with more than six million ACH entries/transactions annually are required to protect deposit account information by rendering it unreadable (encrypted) when stored electronically. Read more about this Rules change here.

This includes the total number of transactions processed through multiple accounts, financial institutions or ACH processors, not only the transactions processed through Kotapay.
If you are below the six million threshold, the rule doesn’t apply at this time. Phase Two of this rule applies to those with ACH volume of over two million transactions annually and will go into effect June 30^th, 2022.

When sending prenotes, the waiting period is three banking days before submitting live transactions.

As a reminder, the Nacha rules mandate a three-day waiting period when sending a prenote before submitting live transactions. With this rule, when a prenote and a live entry are submitted with an effective entry date that is within three banking days of each other to the same account, the live entry will not be submitted to the network and will be returned as an Xcelerated Return (R97). To avoid a delay in processing, please allow a minimum of three banking days between the effective entry dates of the prenote and the live entry.

For example, if a live direct deposit transaction is sent with a posting/deposit date within three banking days of a prenote transaction to the same account, the employee will not receive their direct deposit.

If you have any questions about this Nacha rule, please reach out to the Risk Department. If you have questions on sending prenotes, please ask for the Operations Department.

Upcoming Holiday Hours and Non-Processing Days

Monday, May 31^st is Memorial Day and is a non-processing holiday as the Federal Reserve Banks will be closed. ACH transactions cannot be dated for May 31^st. To avoid additional charges, please allow an extra day for processing.

Add a Pay-Now Button to Your Website

Kotapay will design and build a custom payment portal to allow you to accept credit card or ACH payments via your website. Get started!

Coming Soon! Your Kotapay Password Will Begin to Expire Every 90 Days

As an additional level of security, you will be prompted to update your password every 90 days. You will begin seeing notifications as your current password nears the expiration date. You can also now update your password at any time by going to Other Services > Change Password. If your Kotapay password is saved within your software, you will also need to change it there.

Has Your Company Address Changed?

As a reminder, Nacha Rules require notification of address changes within 30 days. Please notify Kotapay if your company address has changed. As companies shift from office buildings to having employees work-from-home, we realize the office address may no longer be valid. Please contact the Risk Department to update your address.

Fraud Corner: Business Email Compromise (BEC)

One of the most common types of fraud we continue to see is Business Email Compromise (BEC). A BEC scam is when a criminal sends an email on behalf of a legitimate person asking for funds, maybe a wire or their payroll. Oftentimes, the criminal changes dollar amounts and/or banking information and the payroll is sent directly to the criminals. Before anyone notices, the money is gone, exposing your company to losses.

Stay diligent about verifying payroll requests and learn more about BEC by watching this short video or visiting the FBI’s website.

The ACH Network Experienced Record Growth in 2020

The ACH Network continues to grow each year with an 8.2% increase in the number of payments made through the Network in 2020. Direct Deposit showed an increase of 12% while business-to-business payments increased 11%. Continue reading on our blog.