In the Operating Guidelines of the 2011 edition of the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) Operating Rules and Guidelines, NACHA defines an International ACH transaction as any "credit or debit entry that is part of a payment transaction that involves a financial agency's office that is not located within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States." Funds are handled through Originating Gateway Operators, financial institutions that send the initial payments out, and Receiving Gateway Operators, financial institutions that receive the payments in the destination country. Payments, which may be sent as person-to-person foreign transactions, are converted to the receiver's currency using a fixed-to-fixed, fixed-to-variable, or variable-to-fixed exchange rate. International ACH payments supply a cost-effective method for companies to generate high volume payments to international merchants or consumers by taking advantage of payment clearing entities of the other country.
In 2009, NACHA discontinued the international payment applications Corporate Cross-Border (CBR) and Consumer Cross-Border (PBR) in favor of the new SEC type, International ACH Transactions (IAT). IAT transactions are subject to all applicable U.S. law, and must be in compliance with the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the Treasury.