Can anyone share a source where one would go to find an ACH originator's ACH Company ID number? We're getting prepared to 'block' ACH debits when a consumer requests the bank stop all future ACH debits from a named payee-originator. Unless we have the ACH Company ID number, we'd have to 'suspect' all ACH debits coming thru and review each one for payee information-- ugly.

I'm not sure where you go to get the ACH Company ID number, I always thought it was part of the ACH file. You may want to check in the NACHA manual. I'd be cautious about automatically stopping all future ACH debits on a particular originator, especially if it is an insurance company. The customer might have cancelled a policy today, but two months from now decides they want to get auto or life insurance from the same company. If you use the ACH Company ID to stop all future transactions, and something happens to the vehicle or customer and you've refused their payment, the insurance company won't pay off but you may have to. We had this happen at a bank I used to work for when we returned an insurance debit in error. The customer died and had no coverage. It cost us dearly.

Reg E amendment and Federal Reserve Commentary that takes affect January 2007 has caused us to develope a stop payment specific to those consumers that want to stop all debit from a specific originator. Under the amendment 205.10(c) 2 & 3, we have to have a way to block these transaction until the consumer revokes the stop with us. We can only hope that our stop pay verbiage and customer service staff will make it perfectly clear to the consumer when placing this type of stop to make sure they come to the bank and revoke it if they want future debits from the originator to post.

That information is contained in your ACH file. If you're looking at raw files, you should be able to find this information in the Company/Batch Header Record. Usually found in positions 41-50 and is 10 characters (alphameric) in length.