HERNDON, Va.—NACHA—The Electronic Payments Association, has launched the NACHA Challenge, a team competition to “foster new ways to improve the ACH end-user experience by filling market gaps or removing friction points.”
The NACHA Challenge is open to innovators, thinkers and practitioners from any entity, including corporates, academic institutions, nonprofits, think tanks, financial institutions, solution providers and others, the organization said.
Teams will compete for a $15,000 Judges’ Choice prize and a $10,000 Audience Choice prize. Finalists will be invited to present at the PAYMENTS 2016 conference taking place April 17-20 in Phoenix, where the prize winners will be announced.
“New technologies and business processes, and evolving customer behavior and expectations, are transforming the payments industry,” said Scott M. Lang, AAP, senior vice president, association services at NACHA. “Thus, we are challenging the marketplace to propose new approaches and solutions that could further improve the ACH end-user experience and enable even more consumers, businesses and governments to use and benefit from ACH payments.”
During the competition, teams will identify a gap or friction point, describe the solution/approach to address it, and indicate who will benefit and how. Teams are encouraged to think big and creatively. Submission topics are not limited other than they should have direct relevance in whole or in part to the use of ACH.
All submissions must be received by NACHA at challenge@nacha.org by 3 p.m. ET on Friday, March 25, 2016.