Nacha announced that Backpack has become a Nacha Preferred Partner for ACH Experience, Open Banking, and Risk and Fraud Prevention.

Backpack’s financial infrastructure is built specifically for higher education, helping universities, families, and education funding organizations manage 529, scholarship, and other third-party payments. Backpack helps institutions eliminate paper checks through ACH-native workflows and automation, reducing administrative burden and improving security and compliance. Backpack’s platform also helps improve time-to-funding for students, something critical for the accessibility and affordability of education in the U.S.

“A checkless campus should be the goal of every university and college, because not only is ACH more convenient, it’s also safer given the rise of check fraud,” said Jane Larimer, Nacha President and CEO. “Nacha is pleased to welcome Backpack as a Nacha Preferred Partner.”

“Higher education still runs on paper checks—universities receive billions of dollars each year from 529 plans, prepaid tuition plans, scholarship providers, private companies, and government organizations, and most of that volume still arrives by mail and requires manual intervention to process,” said Callum Bedos, Founder and CEO, Backpack. “We built Backpack to give the industry the modern financial infrastructure it has been missing—a single platform that retires those checks and moves every external higher education payment onto the ACH Network. We’re proud to join the Preferred Partner Program and to work alongside Nacha and the broader payments community to make modern ACH the default for how universities, scholarship providers, and student families move money.”

Nacha’s Preferred Partners are organizations that offer products and services that advance the ACH Network through their demonstrated leadership and innovation. For more information about the program, visit Nacha’s Preferred Partner page.

About Nacha

Nacha governs the thriving ACH Network, the payment system that drives safe, smart, and fast Direct Deposits and Direct Payments with the capability to reach all U.S. bank and credit union accounts. There were 35.2 billion ACH Network payments made in 2025, valued at $93 trillion. Through problem-solving and consensus-building among diverse payment industry stakeholders, Nacha advances innovation and interoperability in the payments system. Nacha develops rules and standards, provides industry solutions, and delivers education, accreditation, and advisory services.

About Backpack

Backpack is the modern financial infrastructure purpose-built for higher education. Our Reconciliation Platform—and the powerful workflow automation capabilities embedded within it—enables colleges, universities and providers to move online, reduce administrative burden, improve reconciliation, strengthen compliance and security, and accelerate time-to-funding.

Backpack specializes in external payments—everything from 529 tuition payments to scholarships, corporate sponsorships, and government funding. Backpack streamlines external payments for colleges and universities—replacing paper checks and manual reconciliation with ACH-first payment workflows.

Backpack is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services are provided by OMB Bank, Member FDIC.

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“A checkless campus should be the goal of every university and college, because not only is ACH more convenient, it’s also safer given the rise of check fraud.”