BOJ temporarily waives ACH penalty for deposit-taking institutions amid RTGS issues

The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) is reporting that it has temporarily waived the penalty charged to deposit-taking institutions for using the ACH platform to facilitate transactions over $1 million, arising from ongoing issues with the RTGS system.

Some institutions have been facing challenges with the crediting of RTGS payments and transfers to beneficiaries’ accounts initiated using their platforms, stemming from the migration from the SWIFT Message Type (MT) standard to the new ISO 20022 standard (MX) on December 15.

Given these challenges, the BOJ said in a media release on Tuesday that, to facilitate payments through the ACH platform, it has temporarily waived the $5,000 penalty charge for transactions equal to or exceeding the ACH value threshold of $1,000,000.

The waiver will cover Monday, December 15, to Wednesday, December 31.

In that regard, transactions exceeding the ACH threshold may be conducted during this period via the ACH without attracting a penalty.

“For absolute clarity, be advised that ACH transaction fees charged by DTIs (deposit-taking institutions) remain in effect,” the BOJ said.

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