Understanding
the payments industry in the U.S. can be a complex endeavor. The landscape is a
crowded place, comprised of thousands of banks, credit unions, fintechs, and
other organizations that offer a variety of products and services tailored to
different aspects of the payment experience.

Then there is the
issue of compliance. Companies must obey the myriad of regulations and laws
governing how and when payments should be made, and what information needs to
be requested, provided, recorded and stored. These rules can vary by payment rail,
further adding to the complexity.

To navigate
these challenges, many companies hire consultants to access their needed
expertise. One such group is Nacha’s Elevation
Consulting, which works with both national and global organizations –
including startups, corporations, financial institutions, fintechs and more – to
help them understand how to successfully utilize and optimize payments.

To learn more about Elevation, PaymentsJournal sat down with Samantha Carrier, senior director of Advanced Payment Solutions at Nacha. Joining us in the conversation was Aaron McPherson, vice president of Research Operations at Mercator Advisory Group.

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During the
conversation, Carrier and McPherson discussed the type of consulting work
undertaken by Elevation and for whom, as well as Elevation’s payment calculator
tool, and the challenges and opportunities posed by the ISO 20022 standards.

Elevation consults on more than just the
ACH Network

Given that
Nacha is the steward of the ACH Network, you would be forgiven for thinking its
consulting arm would focus exclusively on questions related to ACH. However,
Elevation’s offerings go well beyond the Network.

“While we certainly have quite a bit of depth on the team when it comes to ACH expertise, [many of whom have the] Accredited ACH Professionals credential to offer clients, our portfolio of businesses is actually pretty diverse,” said Carrier. “With so much going on in the industry, our team has really had an opportunity to work with a lot of different players in the banking system.”

Banks,
businesses, technology providers, and others hire Elevation for a variety of reasons.
Some seek payments advisory and strategy, while others seek custom education
and even custom rulewriting. Additionally, Carrier explained how Elevation