Nacha is the governing body that oversees the ACH network that processes payments from US bank accounts. Non-compliance with Nacha's operating rules could result in penalties and, in some cases, account termination. Nacha will begin enforcing the WEB Debit Account Validation rule from 19 March 2022. This requires businesses to validate any consumer bank accounts that they haven't debited before.

What is the requirement?

Nacha will be enforcing bank account validation, which involves checking whether a bank account and routing number exist and can be debited. Bank account verification, which is recommended but not required, takes an additional step and checks for whether the person providing the bank account is actually the owner of the bank account.

Who does the requirement apply to?

Any business debiting new consumer bank accounts will need to comply with this requirement. Businesses that only plan to debit business bank accounts should still have a bank account validation method enabled in the event that a personal bank account is debited.

What options are available in order to be compliant?

There are two methods offered on Stripe that satisfy Nacha's bank account validation requirement.

• Instant verification (recommended): Customers enter their online banking credentials through a secure Stripe-hosted modal to instantly verify the account. This method minimises fraud, checkout friction and delays in debit processing. Stripe's ACH debits integrations support instant verification with Stripe Financial Connections.
• Micro-deposit verification: Routing and account information is entered manually, and customers wait one to two days for a deposit and manually verify that they've received the deposit. There is no fee for micro-deposit verification.

Both instant verification through Financial Connections and micro-deposit verification are supported on all Stripe ACH integrations.