NACHA Pushes on with API Payments Dream
NACHA, the backbone for the electronic movement of money and data in the US, and its Payments Innovation Alliance (PIA), have named the first five APIs for their big payments push, according to Paybefore sister publication Banking Technology.
The API Standardization Industry Group, created in spring 2017 and sponsored by NACHA’s PIA, is working to further efforts to standardize the use of APIs in the U.S. financial services industry by creating an “API Playbook” or standards framework. In support of that, during its most recent meeting, the group named the first five APIs—from a larger list of 16.
The five APIs for initial standards development are “federal and state tax payment receiver account validation for credit payments”; “get account balance and history”; “get bank contact information”; “interoperability”; and “transaction status”.
The larger list contains three priority use case categories—fraud and risk reduction, data sharing and payment access.
The next meeting of the API Standardization Industry Group will be held Oct. 11, 2017, in New York.
Since 1974, NACHA says it has served as trustee of the ACH Network, managing the development, administration and rules for the payment network that connects all 11,000 financial institutions in the U.S. by moving money and information directly from one bank account to another.
Last year, there were 25 billion automated clearing house (ACH) payments made that moved $43 trillion, according to NACHA.
