SEC Code Meaning: Every ACH SEC Code and Which One to Use

An SEC code, short for Standard Entry Class code, is the three-letter code on every US ACH payment that records how the payment was authorised and whether it went to a consumer or a business account. Every ACH credit and debit must carry one, and a missing or wrong code gets the payment rejected or returned.

Seeing PPD, CCD or WEB beside a payment therefore tells you two things: whether the sender treated it as a personal or a business payment, and how you agreed to it.

The codes come from Nacha, the body that writes the ACH rules, and have nothing to do with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. In India the same letters also appear on market-research surveys, where 'What is your SEC code?' asks for your household's socio-economic grade, from A1 to E3; that meaning, and how to work out your grade, has its own section further down.

Of the twenty-plus codes in Nacha's rules, these six carry almost every business and household ACH payment:

The code decides how much protection you get. A consumer can have an unauthorised debit returned within 60 calendar days, while a business account has only two banking days, which is why the right code matters to both sides.

PPD SEC code

PPD (Prearranged Payment and Deposit) is the SEC code for credits and debits to a consumer account that the account holder agreed to in advance, such as a salary deposit, a loan instalment or an electricity bill.

For a debit, the company needs your authorisation in writing, signed or electronically authenticated, and must give you a copy; a salary credit needs no signed form. If a PPD debit you never agreed to appears, tell your bank: as a consumer you have 60 calendar days to have it returned as unauthorised, under return code R10.

CCD SEC code

CCD (Corporate Credit or Debit) is the SEC code for payments between two business accounts, for example a client company settling your invoice or a retailer making vendor payments to its supplier.

The proof is an agreement between the two businesses, and a CCD entry can carry one addenda record, enough for an invoice number. Using CCD to debit a consumer's account is a classic mistake: the consumer's bank can return it as R05 within 60 days, because a personal account was charged under a corporate code.

CTX SEC code

CTX (Corporate Trade Exchange) is the business-to-business SEC code for payments that carry detailed remittance data, up to 9,999 addenda records, so a large customer can settle dozens of invoices in one B2B payment with every reference attached. Businesses receiving CTX need their bank to pass that data through, or they get the money without knowing which invoices it covers.

The proof needed is the same trading agreement as CCD, and the two acknowledgement codes, ACK for CCD and ATX for CTX, let a receiver confirm the payment arrived.

WEB SEC code

WEB (Internet-Initiated or Mobile Entry) is the SEC code for debits to a consumer account that the account holder authorised online or in an app, such as a streaming subscription or a one-time checkout paid from a bank account.

Before the first debit, the company must screen for fraud and validate your account and routing numbers. Unauthorised WEB debits follow the same 60-day consumer return window as PPD.

Refunds can carry a different code from the original charge: Stripe, for example, sends refunds of WEB debits back as PPD credits.

TEL SEC code

TEL (Telephone-Initiated Entry) is the SEC code for debits to a consumer account that the account holder authorised on a phone call, either one-off or recurring.

The caller needs an existing relationship with you, or you must have made the call, and they must record your verbal authorisation or send written notice before the first debit. If a debit follows a call you do not recognise, report it to your bank as unauthorised.

IAT SEC code

IAT (International ACH Transaction) is the SEC code for an ACH payment that forms part of a transfer starting at, passing through or ending at a bank outside the US.

IAT entries carry extra details on the sender, receiver and foreign bank for sanctions screening, so they can take longer to clear than other cross-border payments sent by wire. Nacha updated the definition on 18 September 2026 to focus on the path of the money and the banks involved; where the sender or receiver lives has never been the test.

You do not have a personal SEC code; each payment carries one chosen by the sender's bank or payment processor. To see it, look in one of three places, depending on who you are.

A batch header for a payroll run reads, in part, '...PPD PAYROLL...': PPD tells the banks how to treat the entries, and PAYROLL is what employees see on their statements. Every entry in that batch shares the same SEC code, which is why mixed payment types go in separate batches.

A US client paying your Indian business into a US receiving account normally sends a domestic CCD, or PPD or WEB if the client is an individual. The payment becomes IAT only if the ACH entry itself is routed to, from or through a bank outside the US.

• A US company paying your invoice usually sends CCD: ask it to put your invoice number in the payment reference.
• A large customer settling many invoices at once may send CTX: check your provider shows the attached remittance detail.
• An individual client paying from a bank app sends WEB, or PPD if they signed a form: give them the exact account name on your receiving account.
• If the payer's bank routes the payment through a bank outside the US, it becomes IAT: expect extra screening and a slightly slower credit.

You never choose or supply the SEC code yourself. To get paid, a client needs four details: the beneficiary name exactly as it appears on your receiving account, the 9-digit ABA routing number, the account number and the account type, usually checking. A standard ACH credit generally reaches the receiving account within one to two business days, and Same Day ACH is faster if the client's bank offers it.

A credit rarely comes back, but when it does the cause is almost always a detail mismatch: a wrong account number (R03 or R04) or a closed account (R02). Checking the details once with a small first payment avoids that.

With Xflow receiving accounts, US clients pay you by local ACH as they would any US vendor, and the money settles to your Indian bank account the next business day (T+1) at the live mid-market rate, with an eFIRA issued automatically as proof of export income for GST and tax.

On an Indian survey, your SEC code is your household's socio-economic grade, from A1 (most affluent) to E3. Under NCCS, the grid most surveys use, you need two facts and the grid on the form:

• Step 1: note the chief earner's education, from illiterate to professional graduate or post-graduate.
• Step 2: count how many of these 11 items your household has: electricity connection, ceiling fan, LPG stove, two-wheeler, colour TV, refrigerator, washing machine, computer or laptop, car, air conditioner and agricultural land.
• Step 3: find where that education row and item count meet on the grid; that cell is your grade.

If the survey shows no grid, the official one is published by MRUC, the body that maintains NCCS. Some newer surveys use ISEC, introduced by MRSI in 2024, which asks about education and occupation instead of household items.

These codes handle check conversion, card networks and messages between banks; most businesses never choose them directly:

The SEC code says how a payment was authorised and what kind of account it is for; the two-digit transaction code says what happens to the account, credit or debit, checking or savings. Every ACH payment needs both, and they must agree.

These are the transaction codes you will meet most often:

A debit transaction code under a credit-only SEC code gets the file rejected before it settles, and a savings code on a checking account can be returned by the receiving bank, so payroll and vendor teams check both fields before every upload.