In a move supported by the American Bankers Association, the Federal Reserve today finalized new operating hours and procedures for the National Settlement Service and Fedwire Funds Service to facilitate adoption of a third same-day ACH processing and settlement window.
The Fed will extend NSS operating hours by one hour to 6:30 p.m. ET, extending the time for initiating Fedwire transfers on behalf of third parties by 45 minutes to 6:45 p.m. ET and closing Fedwire half an hour after the NSS at 7 p.m. ET. To minimize late openings of Fedwire, the reserve banks will raise the threshold for granting extensions to the Fedwire closing time from $1 billion to $3 billion and maintain a minimum 90-minute window, down from two hours, between Fedwire closing and re-opening.
The changes are effective in March 2021, aligning with Nacha’s effective date of March 19, 2021, for implementing the later same-day ACH window. The Fed approved corresponding changes to its Policy on Payment System Risk.
