11.4 The Nacha Rules Effective-Date Calendar: 2026 Through 2028

Key Takeaways

• Effective March 20, 2026: fraud monitoring by ODFIs, Phase 1 fraud monitoring by large Originators/TPSPs/TPSs, Phase 1 ACH credit monitoring by large RDFIs, and the new PAYROLL and PURCHASE Company Entry Descriptions.

• Phase 2 has a June 19, 2026 effective date; because that is a federal holiday, practical implementation is June 22. It covers all other Originators/TPSPs/TPSs and RDFIs under the respective monitoring rules.

• From September 18, 2026, non-Same Day ACH credits generally require availability by 9:00 a.m. RDFI local time on the Settlement Date. The old 5:00 p.m. receipt condition is gone; a separate territorial time-zone exception applies. The IAT definition also changed that day.

• Effective January 1, 2027: registration of IAT contacts in the ACH Contact Registry and the currently accepted characters rule; on September 17, 2027 the Same Day ACH per-transaction limit rises to $10 million.

• Effective March 17, 2028: a new Return Reason Code R90 for sanctions compliance obligations.

11.4 The Nacha Rules Effective-Date Calendar: 2026 Through 2028

Use dates explicitly: this is an operational Rules calendar as of October 2026. It distinguishes effective requirements from approved future amendments; it is not a guarantee that every listed amendment appears on an AAP exam. Use Nacha’s candidate handbook and blueprint for exam scope.

1. The Calendar at a Glance

2. March 20, 2026 — The Risk Management Package Lands

Three of the four items are covered in depth in Sections 9.5 and 9.6. The fourth adds descriptions for specified payment types.

Standard Company Entry Descriptions: PAYROLL and PURCHASE

The Company Entry Description field is a maximum of 10 characters in the Company/Batch Header Record, and in most cases the Originator chooses the value ("Gas bill", "INS PREM", "SOC SEC"). For certain payment types the Rules mandate a specific description. Effective March 20, 2026, two more became mandatory:

These join the existing mandated descriptions such as REVERSAL, RECLAIM and RETRY PYMT. The field's requirements are detailed in Subpart 3.2.2 (Glossary of Data Elements) in Appendix Three of the Rules.

Scope matters: PAYROLL helps identify compensation credits; PURCHASE identifies covered purchase debits. Neither description makes every e-commerce payment eligible for the same treatment. The PURCHASE requirement does not cover services, and Nacha does not require ODFIs to police its presence or accuracy.

3. September 18, 2026 — Funds Availability Tightens

This amendment changes the receipt condition underlying the 9:00 a.m. deadline. It was already effective when the October 2026 window began.

Before: an RDFI had to make a non-Same Day ACH credit available by 9:00 a.m. RDFI local time on the Settlement Date only if the credit was made available to the RDFI by *5:00 p.m. local time on the banking day before settlement.

From September 18, 2026: the 5:00 p.m. receipt condition is eliminated. Subsection 3.3.1.1 (Availability of Credits That Are Not Same Day Entries) now reads that for a credit Entry that is not a Same Day Entry, the RDFI must make the amount available to the Receiver for withdrawal no later than 9:00 a.m. (RDFI's local time) on the Settlement Date. The territorial time-zone exception described below must be considered separately.

Practical impact: credits delivered to the RDFI after 5:00 p.m. the prior banking day, including those arriving in the 6:00 a.m. ET ACH Operator file, must now be posted and available by 9:00 a.m. local time. Nacha's stated benefit is earlier availability for payroll, benefits, cashouts, refunds and invoice payments. For RDFIs east of the Atlantic Time Zone and west of the International Date Line, a credit made available after 8:00 a.m. local time on the Settlement Date is due by the end of that date; if delivered after processing has finished, it is due by 9:00 a.m. on the next Banking Day.

Same Day ACH availability remains window-specific: first-window credits by 1:30 p.m. RDFI local time, second-window credits by 5:00 p.m. RDFI local time, and third-window credits by the end of the RDFI’s processing day on the Settlement Date. The third-window 6:00 p.m. ET interbank settlement is not a 6:00 p.m. local availability rule.

4. Beyond the 2026 Window (2027–2028)

• January 1, 2027 — IAT contacts in the ACH Contact Registry. Every Participating DFI must register an IAT-handling contact, either named primary and secondary individuals with title, email and phone, or department contact information with a working email address and telephone number. This aligns IAT with the existing mandatory ACH Operations and Fraud/Risk Management categories.
• January 1, 2027 — Currently accepted characters. Codifies the character set the Network actually accepts.
• March 19, 2027 — IAT enhancements. An optional Date of Birth field, and accommodation for non-bank foreign financial agencies in IAT Entries.
• September 17, 2027 — Same Day ACH to $10 million. The per-transaction limit rises from the current $1,000,000 (in force since March 18, 2022) to $10,000,000. For an operational scenario dated October 2026, the limit is still $1,000,000.
• March 17, 2028 — Return Reason Code R90. A new return reason code for sanctions compliance obligations, giving RDFIs a purpose-built code; in October 2026, the published R90 amendment is not yet effective. Follow current sanctions instructions and return-code rules rather than using a future code.

Date discipline: answer a dated scenario using the requirement effective on that date. In October 2026 the Same Day limit is $1,000,000; the approved $10 million limit and R90 are future changes. Publication and operational effectiveness are different events.

Official Sources

• Nacha’s current effective-date calendar
• PAYROLL and PURCHASE scope
• Non-Same Day availability
• Territorial availability exception
• Same Day window schedule — its historical non-Same Day rows are superseded by the 2026 amendment.