Automated Clearing House Solution (ACH)

PS-ACH - Central

ProgressSoft’s Automated Clearing House central unit solution operates on a 24/7 basis to facilitate an end-to-end clearing cycle of direct debit and direct credit payment transactions between financial institutions in a Straight-Through Processing (STP) manner.

The highly scalable solution seamlessly integrates with modern Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) solutions and provides the regulatory body with comprehensive management over participant financial institutions and the entire clearing cycle.

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Features

Implementation Models

PS-ACH can be implemented in a centralized model which consolidates the central and participant units at the regulatory body, or a distributed model in which the central unit is implemented at the regulatory body and the participant unit is implemented at the financial institution. This is in addition to a hybrid implementation model which is a merge between the centralized and distributed models.

Mandate Management

PS-ACH embeds a Mandate Management Module for the verification and validation of mandate initiation, approval and management, along with their related direct debit payments across participant financial institutions. These payments include utility bills, recurring payments, loan installments and more.

Integration with RTGS

PS-ACH seamlessly integrates with RTGS solutions at the regulatory body where the Net Clearing Positions (NCPs) for each clearing session are posted to the clearing accounts of participant financial institutions. An automatic posting of NCPs to the RTGS also takes place when a clearing session is closed.

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End-to-End Clearing and Settlement

PS-ACH offers an end-to-end clearing cycle starting from the Originating Depository Financial Institution (ODFI) to the Receiving Depository Financial Institution (RDFI). The solution covers the presentment, logging, preparation and passing of payments until they are posted to end-user accounts.

Participant Types

PS-ACH supports various types of participants whether they have settlement accounts, direct or indirect connectivity to the regulatory body, or are representing other participants in the payments ecosystem. These types of participants are classified as direct participants, indirect participants, technical participants and sub-participants.

Participant Management

PS-ACH provides the regulatory body with full management over participant financial institutions including adding participants to the network, reviewing and updating participant information, modifying participant status as well as suspending, resuming or deleting a terminated participant from the clearing repository.

Session Management

PS-ACH offers the regulatory body a dynamic session management module that allows it to define and schedule clearing sessions for normal and exceptional working business days such as extended sessions. The regulatory body can also modify daily schedules to cater for incidents or specific constraints.

Debit Cap and Item Limits

PS-ACH provides the regulatory body with the means to manage participants’ debit cap limits per currency as well as payment item limits per item type. It also alerts the regulatory body when participants are about to reach a limit to mitigate settlement failure risks.

Billing Features

PS-ACH allows the regulatory body to customize and define charges and penalties for participant financial institutions. These charges and penalties can be defined as fixed values or as a percentage of the original transaction. Billing reports corresponding to each participant are also provided at the end of each clearing session.

Parameterized Processing

PS-ACH offers a large number of parameters pertaining to risk management, system performance and data security. These parameters include retention periods, automatic rejection, transmission scheduling and system working hours. This is in addition to reply processing mode which determines if the solution is working on resilience or request/reply mode.

Multicurrency Support

PS-ACH supports multiple currencies and runs specific clearing sessions for each supported currency. In addition, the regulatory body is able to seamlessly add new currencies as part of the solution’s parametric design.

Instructive Messages

PS-ACH processes cancellation messages received from the ODFI and rejection messages received from the RFDI prior to payment settlement. In addition, it processes reversal messages from the ODFI and return messages from the RFDI after the payment settlement.

Benefits

International Compliance

Provides a secure and fully compliant network for interbank clearing of payment transactions

Scalable Implementation

Offers a highly scalable solution that supports prospect integrations with existing and new technologies

Dynamic Session Management

Delivers flexible session management that caters for specific incidents or constraints

Improved Participant Management

Provides a parametrized design for improved and full management over participant financial institutions

Versatile Payment Types

Supports direct credit and direct debit payment transactions as well as multicurrency clearing

Elevated Nationwide Payments

Accelerates transaction processing, reduces costs and improves funds availability