NACHA Issues Bulletin on Elevated Return Levels from Pre-Authorized ACH Debits in Light of COVID-19 Crisis

In light of the elevated risk of potential violations of NACHA rules as a result of elevated returns due to the COVID-19 crisis, on April 2, 2020, NACHA issued guidance on how it will approach such rules violations if and when they occur.

Specifically, NACHA will consider relief on a case by case basis, and will consider the following things, among others:

• “Whether the debits were in fact properly authorized using good authorization practices;”
• “Whether the authorizations remained effective in light of any intervening circumstances;”
• “Whether the Originator clearly communicated with its Receivers with respect to ongoing debits; and,”
• “Whether the Originator had a prior history of elevated return rates.”

The bulletin is available here.