NACHA representatives will be active in the Forum's Liaison and Interoperability Working Group (LIWG), which was launched this spring as a center of expertise within the Forum for interoperability with external standards and communications with organizations that develop them.

The IFX Forum is an international non-profit industry association whose mission is to develop and promote the adoption of its open, interoperable standard for financial data exchange, IFX, which is available at no charge at bms.ifxforum.org/. NACHA, a not-for-profit association that represents nearly 11,000 U.S. financial institutions, manages the development, administration, and governance of the ACH Network, the backbone for the electronic movement of money and data.

"We're very pleased to welcome NACHA as a Forum member, and we look forward to their contributions to the important work we've embarked upon in the payments and payment remittances area," said Richard P. Urban, President of the IFX Forum. "I invite any organization that has an interest in furthering the interoperability of banking standards to join us as well. Membership has direct value for those participating, as well as benefit for the global financial services community."

"The use of XML standards is creating new opportunities for the adoption of electronic payments and remittance. NACHA is pleased to be working with the IFX Forum membership in efforts to support payments and remittance process automation for all businesses," said George Throckmorton, Managing Director, Advanced Payment Solutions, NACHA.