It depends (EDIT: Availability depends on rails, and ACH is an overloaded term). Depending on the financial institutions being used to move funds, the transfer could be immediate using FedNow or RTP (instant payment rails), same day (ACH has multiple settlement windows), or next day. As a retail consumer, most of this is hidden from you. If I push funds from Chase to Navy Federal Credit Union, it is immediate over RTP (but this is not communicated in the UX, only via observation).
(JPMC and Bank of America are terrible banks fwiw, use a combination of a brokerage [deposit and investment accounts] and credit union [credit products])
> There is no guarantee or regulation or requirement to make it so.
I believe Nacha Operating Rules & Guidelines sets forth the requirement. Regardless, you are correct that the blog post in question could use some improvement around communicating funds transfer timelines.
> 2. ACH Payment Processing: Availability of Funds
> In accordance with Nacha Operating Rules & Guidelines, any non-Same Day ACH credit payment
must be made available for withdrawal by the Receiver no later than 9:00 a.m., Receiving
Depository Financial Institution (RDFI) local time, on the settlement date (provided the entries are
made available to the RDFI by its ACH operator no later than 5:00 p.m. on the banking day prior to
the settlement date).
> On January 03, 2022, the Fiscal Service accepted the Nacha rule changes that allow for Same Day
ACH transactions, and effective March 22, 2022, Fiscal Service amended 31 CFR Part 210, to
address changes made by Nacha through the 2021 Nacha Operating Rules & Guidelines book,
including supplements thereto.
> Same Day ACH rules have established three windows for all financial institutions to submit Same
Day ACH payments: 10:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m., and 4:45 p.m. ET. Fiscal Service only uses the second and
third windows for same day ACH transactions. Funds from Same Day ACH credits processed in the
second processing window will be made available by 5:00 p.m. RDFI’s local time, while funds from
Same Day ACH credits processed in the third window are settled at 6:00 p.m. ET. The amount of a
third window Same Day ACH credit must be available to the receiver’s account no later than the end
of the RDFI’s processing day (RDFI’s local time). Such funds are not required to be
available for
withdrawal on the settlement date. There is a $1,000,000 per payment limit for Same Day ACH that
applies to all Fiscal Service payment customers.
As far as I know, this is not exactly true.
ACH Credits always post to the Receiver’s account by 8:30 a.m. (Central) on the following banking day