IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today that the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Retail Payments Office has selected IBM to modernize its automated clearing house (ACH) processing platform. When conducting ACH operations, the Federal Reserve serves as the central operator ensuring electronic payments (direct deposit, bill payments) clear and settle between commercial banks.

The Federal Reserve operates one of the largest interbank ACH and check clearing systems in the country based out of the Atlanta Retail Payments Office. To process the billions of ACH and check payment transactions that electronically flow through its systems annually, the Federal Reserve will implement IBM’s Financial Transaction Manager. The new IBM FTM for ACH software will allow the Federal Reserve Bank to input, process, clear, settle and provide billing/accounting functions for all ACH payments in all 12 districts across the Federal Reserve system.

“By modernizing our payments systems, we will be well positioned to converge our existing retail payment operations and payment infrastructure onto a unified platform,” said Brian Egan, Senior Vice President, of the Retail Payments Office of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. “This will enable us to process payments more cost effectively and position us to more quickly adapt to changes in the ACH and electronic check payments environment. Both of these outcomes are consistent with our strategies to continue to provide financial institutions with high quality and cost effective ACH and electronic check clearing services”.

“IBM is committed to providing our customers with a modern payments platform that improves the way global payments and transactions are conducted,” said Keith Melton, Director, IBM Commerce Payments. "IBM Financial Transaction Manager simplifies the management of high volume global payments onto a single efficient payment hub to help make payment processing more efficient and transparent. It also provides financial institutions a powerful tool to better serve their corporate customers.”

IBM Commerce helps clients understand customer behavior and use insights to help deliver highly personalized and relevant experiences at every touch point. For more information on IBM Commerce Payments, please click here. 

For more information about IBM Banking, visit ibm.com/banking.