Payment Transaction Codes

When you make a transaction, one of two types of codes, describing the type of payment you are making, will appear on your reports and on most customer financial statements. Depending on whether the payments are destined for Canada or to the U.S., a Payments Canada Code will be used for your Canadian transactions and an Automated Clearing House Standard Entry Class Code (ACH) will be used for your U.S. transactions.

Payments Canada Codes for Canadian Payments

Payments Canada transaction codes are used for payments made within Canada. They show up as descriptive messages on most customer financial statements. Payments Canada codes are classified as Restricted and Non-Restricted. You can use any of the Non-Restricted Payments Canada codes in your transaction files. The Restricted codes need RBC Royal Bank authorization before they can be used.

Payments Canada credit and debit transaction code types:

Non-Restricted Consumer Pre-Authorized Transaction Codes can be used for both credits and debits. 

Restricted Consumer Pre-Authorized Transaction Codes can be used for both credits and debits, but debits require authorization from RBC beforehand. If arrangements are not made to use these restricted Payments Canada codes, your Pre-Authorized Debit payments will not be processed. They will be identified as a "T" level error or rejected, and reported on your Input Verification and Edit Report. There are no restrictions to credit transactions.

Business Pre-Authorized Transaction Codes are used only for debit transactions.

Payments Canada Returned/Dishonoured Items Reason Codes

Dishonoured transactions will be returned to you with a Payments Canada Return/Dishonoured Items Reason Code and listed on your Returned Items Report. The report will have a message explaining the reason for the return. Your account will be re-credited with these transactions. 

Automated Clearing House (ACH) Standard Entry Class Codes for U.S. Payments

These transaction codes apply to payments made to the United States. The ACH Standard Entry Class (SEC) codes are used and comply with the U.S. NACHA payment system. As such, they cannot be used with the Payments Canada format.

For ACH codes, there are 2 types of formats:

1. Standard (STD) Format Codes
2. Automated Clearing House (ACH) Format Codes

Some Standard Entry Class codes are restricted and must be authorized by RBC Royal Bank before they can be used.

Payments Canada Return/Dishonoured Items Reason Code

Dishonoured U.S. transactions will be returned to you with an ACH Returned/Dishonoured/Contested Items Reason Code and listed on your Returned Items Report. The report will have a message explaining the reason for the return. Your account will be re-credited with these transactions. 

Notice of Change Transaction Codes

If a U.S. payment or pre-note has been processed, but is deemed to have invalid information by the receiving bank, a Notification of Change Codes with a descriptive message will appear on your report.