The Automated Clearing House (ACH) is the backbone of the nation’s electronic payments system. ACH moves billions of dollars every day from one bank account to another, and from bank accounts to vendors, at a tiny cost per transaction. Most transactions clear within one business day. ACH transactions are a fixture in all of our financial lives, in one form or another, whether in the form of a direct deposit, a tax refund, or a peer-to-peer payment.
Every ACH transaction submitted for processing must be accompanied by the correct two-digit ACH transaction code to mark it as a debit from one account and a credit to a different account.There are too many codes to detail in one post, but let’s explore the most common ACH transaction codes in several categories.
Before reviewing the codes, here are a few helpful acronyms and what they stand for:
- NOC: A notification of change simply indicates something about a bank account has changed, such as an account or routing number.
- CCD: A cash concentration or disbursement is a business-to-business (B2B) transaction. It can be either a credit or a debit used to make transfers internally and to external suppliers.
- CTX: Businesses and government entities use the corporate trade exchange system to make recurring payments to a number of parties with a single funds transfer.
Just so you know
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ACH transaction codes
Banks initiate entries into the ACH network by coding the transaction as a debit or credit to a merchant’s account. Other typical account types include consumer and loan accounts. The most frequently used codes are listed below.
Checking credits
| Code | Description |
|---|---|
| 21 | Notification of Change or Return (codes 22, 23, and 24) |
| 22 | Deposit |
| 23 | Prenotification for a checking credit |
| 24 | Zero dollar entries with remittance data (for CCD and CTX entries only) |
Checking debits
| Code | Description |
|---|---|
| 26 | Notification of Change or Return |
| 27 | Payment |
| 28 | Prenotification for a savings credit |
| 29 | Zero dollar entries with remittance data (for CCD and CTX entries only) |
Savings credits
| Code | Description |
|---|---|
| 31 | Notification of Change or Return |
| 32 | Deposit |
| 33 | Prenotification for a savings credit |
| 34 | Zero dollar entries with remittance data (for CCD and CTX entries only) |
Savings debits
| Code | Description |
|---|---|
| 36 | Notification of Change or Return |
| 37 | Payment |
| 38 | Prenotification for a savings debit |
| 39 | Zero dollar entries with remittance data (for CCD and CTX entries only) |
Financial institution general ledger (GL) credits
| Code | Description |
|---|---|
| 41 | Notification of Change or Return |
| 42 | Deposit |
| 43 | Prenotification of a GL credit |
| 44 | Zero dollar entries with remittance data (for CCD and CTX entries only) |
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