As when any major change appears on the horizon, one of the first questions to be asked is what will be the impact on revenues.

The latest proposals from NACHA to introduce a same-day ACH service are no exception. By shortening the window in which to process transaction and get returns out to receiving banks, the same-day processing scheme will reduce float and interest revenue, require significant process changes and are a further driver for American banks to update their legacy and aged infrastructure to  more agile and flexible payments platforms.

But there’s no denying that this is a proposal whose time has come, and is likely to prove as popular with American customers as the UK’s similarly themed Faster Payments scheme on the other side of the Atlantic, and others around the world. Equally, it is likely to bring more payments into the ACH settlement network, including web sales, P2P transaction and mobile payments. It could, if managed effectively, put banks in a stronger position to mount a challenge to the new players like PayPal that are increasing markets share at the expense of traditional finance houses. The proposals may still be in their infancy, but now is the time to start seriously considering how to respond by looking at the impact on the business as well as the opportunities for revenue growth and competitive differentiation.