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The Bahamas Automated Clearing House: An Introduction
Wednesday, 10 February 2010 21:08
The Automated Clearing House is a system authorized by the U.S. government that involves a financial environment wherein a network of web-linked banks makes electronic wire transfers possible.  With the presence of the Automated Clearing House, it will be easier for people to deposit cash and issue cheques for business and personal consumption. Recently, Brian Smith the business manager of the Bahamas ACH, was featured in the local news because of the pending utilization of ACH within the Caribbean islands. Smith, in this interview, enumerated some of the major advantages the people of the islands can get from the Automated Clearing House in the islands in terms of both personal and business financial transactions. These are as follows.  

 

Advantages of Using the Automated Clearing House for Bahamas:

 

  • The first advantage of utilizing BACH is the quickening of all banking transactions to mere minutes. This is because of the automated and electronic nature of the said transactions. With the use of the Internet and secure cyber-banking protocols, you will be able to transfer money from one account to another without the hassle of much paperwork.
  • Secondly, the Bahamas ACH will ensure that your money is safe and secure through the aforementioned protocols that only the BACH bank network knows about. These protocols are limited to those banks that have direct linkage to the network for intra-banking transactions.
  • Aside from this, you can now receive money from a different bank account from your employer’s account if you need to even if you have accounts with different financial institutions. This means that you do not need to have an account at your employer’s bank to be paid.
  • As stated above, BACH will greatly reduce banking transaction hours and transfer durations. You would not have to wait for weeks for your deposit to reach the proper account. Because of fast wire transfers, you will be able to send and receive cash within days of your withdrawal or deposit.
  • BACH will also reduce the risk of danger when physically transporting a cheque from one bank to another. This will be much safer for the messengers and the banks itself. The messenger will not have to worry about shady characters and having the cash or cheque stolen from him.
  • These are just some of the major advantages of using BACH for all your business transactions. The Automated Clearing House is a prime example of how far technology can take us in terms of financial security and safety.
  • In addition, ACH has become so widely utilized by banks all over the world that e-commerce has decided to tap into this as well. The National Automated Clearing House Association has decided to setup specific guidelines as to the proper way of conducting online banking transactions to protect the consumers as well as the merchants. NACHA will disseminate these guidelines in March of this year.

 

The Central Bank of Bahamas Governor Wendy Craigg also confirmed the story, saying that by March people will be able to pay all debit-credit transactions for their businesses online and learn the proper way of doing it.

These guidelines aim to strengthen the security of each transaction through digital signatures and encryption programs that can help protect the identity of the clients and aid the banks authenticate the client identities before proceeding with the transaction.

ACH also plans to tap into Internet paying services like PayPal to decrease the risk of bouncing cheque incidents and payments that the client failed to receive. With ACH collaborating with these online financial institutions, banking transactions would be much.

 

Major Financial Institutions linked to BACH

Here are some of the major financial institutions linked to the BACH as follows. You can find all these banks in the Caribbean islands and Canada as well.

  • Bank of The Bahamas Limited
  • Commonwealth Bank
  • Fidelity
  • Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)
  • Scotiabank
  • First Caribbean International Bank

Central Bank regulates the network banks, which ensures smooth banking transactions within the network. With the BACH within your reach, your financial standing will be better than before.

Contact us for more information about BACH and implementing electronic payments for your business.

 


Websoft Written on Wednesday, 10 February 2010 21:08 by Websoft

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