Automated Clearing House (ACH)

According to ACAMS International Glossary of Key Money Laundering Terms and Acronyms, the Automated Clearing House is a system used to electronically debit a borrower's checking or savings account. In addition to the three accepted wire transfer systems, there are four ACH networks. These networks electronically facilitate the transfer of funds among large domes­tic U.S. banks by way of a batch processing mes­sage system. They are used for bulk orders made days in advance—for example, a large corporation's entire payroll. ACH payments are commonly small, recurring, submitted in bulk by well-established users and are not practical for money laundering.