PHOENIX–Royal Credit Union won the Audience Choice Award and the $10,000 that goes with it during the NACHA Challenge, as part of NACHA’s PAYMENTS 2016 meeting. Wisconsin-based Royal CU was one of three finalists for the award.
“Team Real Time Royals” was selected for a proposed real-time application program interface (API) to allow financial institutions and merchants to validate transactions via the ACH Network in real time. According to the proposal, batch processing would still be available for originators that do not choose to pay for the new service, but real-time ACH processing via an API would potentially provide a competitive edge. The proposal was submitted by team captain Jennifer Brantner, product settlement and services manager, and her colleagues Emily Kurth, Nicole Glodowski, and Erik LeMay.
The $15,000 Judges Choice Award went to “Team Curmudgeon” of United Bank in Charleston, W.V., for its proposal to create a new Standard Entry Class Code to identify securities transactions to allow for faster settlement.
“NACHA has a commitment to innovation and inclusiveness. It is in that spirit that we created the NACHA Challenge to invite the marketplace to brainstorm potential ways to remove friction and further improve the ACH end-user experience,” said Scott M. Lang, AAP, senior vice president, Association Services at NACHA.