The Ghana Interbank Payments and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS), in collaboration with all banks has introduced a new service to the existing ACH Direct Credit platform known as ACH DC Near Real Time (NRT); that allows Corporate Institutions to make bulk payments faster and almost in real time.

ACH DC NRT according to GhIPSSwill enhance the efficiency of making bulk payments such as salaries, dividends etc. by reducing the time to credit accounts from within 4 to 24 hours to 15 minutes; from one source account to multiple accounts in different banks.

Benefits of ACH DC NRT:

• Provides Corporate Institutions with a viable alternative to cheques

• Allows corporate institutions to credit the accounts of beneficiaries on a bulk payments file within 15minutes of presenting payment file to their banks.

• It is an efficient payment option which provides transparency and certainty of payments

• Corporate Institutions have the opportunity to make bulk payments anytime between 6:00pm the previous day and 3:00pm the following day

• Because the NRT system allows banks of corporate institutions to re-present returned payment details within the same session, corporate institutions can correct all payment errors for re-presentment without fear of missing payment timelines.

• Allows for deadline payments

ACH DC NRT can be accessed by organisations, through their banks & savings and Loans companies; for the payments of salaries, allowances, pensions, welfare benefits, suppliers and all other bulk payment types.

Commenting on the introduction of this service, Chief Executive of GhIPSS, Archie Hesse said “Direct Credit NRT is a major addition to the plethora of electronic payment solutions, which will be extremely useful to businesses and other organisations.”

He encouraged organisations seeking to make faster bulk payments, to use NRT, to ensure that intended recipients receive the money almost immediately.