How the Nacha WEB debit rule affects your organization

Whether your company uses direct deposit or other direct payments through the ACH network, you’re likely leveraging WEB debit transfers in some way. And if you’re using WEB debits, you should be adhering to Nacha’s WEB debit rule. Doing so will not only keep you on good terms with Nacha, but it’s also an opportunity to enhance payment experiences and protect your company. Here’s how.

Nacha’s WEB (meaning internet-initiated entry) debit compliance rules are designed to protect both the ACH network and your company from rising ACH fraud. The Association of Finance Professionals (AFP) 2025 Payments Fraud and Control Survey Report found that 79% of businesses were targets of payments fraud and 63% of businesses were directly impacted by ACH or check fraud.  

Fraud usually occurs when a criminal accesses a customer’s account and submits an unauthorized ACH transaction. In the past, all a criminal needed was an account number and a bank routing number. How many abandoned checkbooks might be floating around in the landfill, waiting for an eager fraudster? 

With a third of businesses falling victim to ACH WEB debit fraud, it’s no wonder Nacha is updating its rules to protect both the ACH network and your company.

Nacha has established operating rules that keep the ACH network secure. As part of those operating rules, originators of WEB debit entries must use a “commercially reasonable fraudulent transaction detection system” to screen those debit transactions for fraud. What that detection system specifically looks like has been largely up to the businesses initiating ACH transfers.  

However, Nacha’s has recently augmented this requirement  augmented standard specifically requires that the “fraudulent transaction detection system” includes account validation. Under the  rule which aims to cut down WEB debit fraud, an account must be validated with the first use of the account number, or after any changes to the account number.

To be compliant with Nacha’s WEB debit rule, your payment solution must include some form of account validation. This validation can take several Nacha-approved forms: 

• Prenotification entry: The payment originator sends a zero-dollar entry through the ACH network to the account several days prior to the live entry. 
• Micro-deposit verification: Small amounts—usually between a couple cents and a dollar—are sent to an account and must be verified by the account holder. 
• Instant account validation: The customer provides consent to access their account information, ideally through a direct API connection to the customer’s financial institution. Of these verification methods, instant account validation delivers the most accurate information in real time and doesn’t rely on the customer manually keying their account and routing information. They simply log in to their account and provide consent for the validation. 

Nacha also notes that companies may leverage other validation means. For example, proving that an account has a reliable history of prior successful payments may act as a sufficient validation. Ultimately, Nacha recognizes that every company’s position and situation is unique, and so determining whether an account validation method is “commercially reasonable” will differ, and each company should consult their own attorneys, risk department, or other advisors to ensure the validation method is compliant.

Through our Mastercard Open Finance Pay™ solution set, we offer instant account validation that satisfies Nacha’s updated WEB debit rule and provides additional valuable data to improve the experience and efficiency of ACH payments. Our instant account validation enables money movers to mitigate fraud and maximize the accuracy of payment transactions by providing account and routing numbers, account owner verification, and balance checks to streamline and secure ACH payments. And with easy and fast consumer permissioning, our validation solution empowers consumers to benefit from their own data to have better financial services experiences.

In addition to validating account information, the consumer-permissioned data Mastercard’s open finance platform provides can be used to check balances prior to processing payments to avoid fees and returns due to insufficient funds. It can also support Know Your Customer (KYC) by providing the name and address of the account owner on file at the financial institution. While this data is useful for payments, it can also be leveraged in account opening, digital wallet or prepaid card funding, or other use cases where similar information is needed.

Don’t just take our word for it. Nacha has named Mastercard Open Finance a Preferred Partner, which guarantees that our validation solution aligns with Nacha’s core strategies to advance the ACH networks. According to Nacha, those who are preferred partners:

• Facilitate efficiencies in the use of ACH information and messaging formats and standards
• Improve ACH risk management and transaction quality that is conducive to ongoing innovation in the ACH network
• Conduct business according to the highest standards

Nacha’s WEB debit rule protects you and ensures better ACH payment experiences. And with Mastercard Open Finance’s instant validation solution, you’ll also empower your customers and get access to the highest-quality real-time data.