The new capabilities mean businesses and consumers can send and receive payments and payment-related information on the same day through the ACH Network. All financial institution can now receive same-day transactions and, although optional, Nacha says it expects many banks will begin enabling the origination of the faster payments today.

According to its own research, the body says 95% of the nation’s top financial institutions intend to originate same day ACH this year, with top reasons cited for how it will be used including payroll and business-to-business payments.

The launch marks a major moment for the US. In 2012 The Clearing House killed off a plan by Nacha to create a same-day ACH platform but the project was resurrected two years later thanks to a sea-change in thinking among US financial institutions, which have been left behind as other countries have adapted their payments infrastructures to cater for the needs of digital consumers and businesses.

"The launch of Same Day ACH marks a significant milestone in the journey towards faster payments in the US," says Janet Estep, president and CEO, Nacha. "While other payments initiatives have been developed to support the demand for faster payments in the US, Same Day ACH provides absolute certainty that your payment can get to absolutely anyone else with a bank account on the same day, regardless of which bank or credit union they use, bringing value to all users of the ACH Network."

The arrival of the new service will be a boon to third party P2P mobile money services from the likes of Venmo, which is facing competition from the bank-backed real-time mobile money service from Early Warning's clearXchange platform.

Phase 2 will launch next September, introducing the faster processing and settlement of debit transactions, in addition to credit transactions, supporting additional use cases such as consumer bill payment for utility, insurance, telecom, mortgage, loan and credit card payments.