ACH Standard Entry Class code

CIE SEC code: Customer Initiated Entry

Credit initiated by a consumer, such as an online bill payment.

What CIE is for

Credits a consumer starts, typically an online bill payment sent through their bank’s bill-pay service to a company.

Initiated by a consumer; credits a biller’s account.

Authorization

The consumer initiates the payment, so the entry is the consumer’s own instruction.

A summary in general terms: the Nacha Operating Rules set the exact requirements, and Regulation E adds its own for consumer accounts.

Debits, credits and addenda

Credits only. A debit sent as CIE is returned R35.

Addenda on a forward entry: type 05, up to 1 per entry. Returns (addenda type 99) and Notifications of Change (type 98) follow their own layouts whatever the SEC code.

Returns

CIE is credits only: a debit sent as CIE is returned R35. R21 and R22 (invalid company or individual identification) are used mostly on CIE entries.

Common mix-ups

In a CIE entry the consumer starts the payment; in a PPD credit a company pays a consumer.

Where CIE sits in a NACHA file

The SEC code is a batch-level field: positions 51–53 of the Company/Batch Header record (type 5), so every entry in the batch shares it, and a file that mixes SEC codes puts them in separate batches. The batch header also carries the Company Name, Company Identification and Company Entry Description that Receivers see on their statements.

To read a CIE batch record by record, open the file in NACHA Navigator, a free sister site that parses NACHA files in your browser without uploading them.

Look up CIE from code or an AI agent

REST · GET · no key

curl -s 'https://payopskit.com/api/v1/codes/CIE?set=ach-sec'

MCP · tools/call · lookup_payment_code

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "lookup_payment_code",
    "arguments": {
      "code": "CIE",
      "set": "ach-sec"
    }
  }
}

Response (JSON)

{
  "code": "CIE",
  "set": "ach-sec",
  "found": true,
  "matches": [
    {
      "set": "ach-sec",
      "code": "CIE",
      "name": "Customer Initiated Entry",
      "description": "Credit initiated by a consumer, such as an online bill payment.",
      "details": {
        "direction": "credit",
        "addendaTypes": "05",
        "minAddenda": 0,
        "maxAddenda": 1
      }
    }
  ]
}

The MCP server is at /mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key); the API and MCP docs show how to connect Claude, Cursor or VS Code.

Source: Nacha Operating Rules, Appendix Three (Standard Entry Class codes). The code’s name is the Rules’ own; the rest is this site’s plain-language summary, informational and not a substitute for the Rules or your ODFI agreement.