Multiple deposit delays at US banks linked to ACH system error
Several major banks in the United States are currently experiencing deposit delays, according to a November 3 CNN report.
This report suggests that Bank of America, Chase Bank, US Bank, Truist Bank and Wells Fargo are among the banks that have encountered problems.
The problem concerns the Automated Clearing House (ACH), an American payment network widely used to transfer funds between American and sometimes international bank accounts. CNN cited an announcement from the US Federal Reserve stating that the error came from ACH’s private sector operator, Electronic Payment Network (EPN). Specifically, an error at the EPN on November 2 caused certain data elements to be masked, preventing financial institutions from processing ACH transfers.
CNN also obtained a statement from Greg MacSweeney, a spokesperson for electronic payment network operator The Clearing House. MacSweeney said the problem was the result of a manual error rather than a cybersecurity issue. He added that The Clearing House is working with relevant financial institutions on this issue.
The ACH outage will only delay deposits and will not affect customers’ overall bank balances, according to CNN and its various sources.
Crypto exchanges are mostly unaffected
Although many crypto exchanges handle ACH transfers, few, if any, of these companies have explicitly stated that they are affected by the service outage.
Kraken reported delays involving CustomersBank Wire on November 2 but did not mention ACH; he said the problem was now resolved. Gemini reported unresolved issues on November 3 with its credit card, but again did not mention ACH.
Coinbase, eToro, and Crypto.com, all known to support ACH transfers, have not reported any issues on their respective status pages. Binance.US, meanwhile, has disabled ACH and wire transfers since June following legal action from regulators and subsequent failed partnerships within the banking system.
Regardless, any cryptocurrency exchange processing deposits via ACH may have been affected in the same way as traditional financial institutions.
