Mandatory Transition to Electronic CBP Refunds Effective February 6, 2026

To Our Valued Trade Partners, Effective February 6, 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will officially transition to issuing all refunds electronically via the Automated Clearing House (ACH). This change effectively ends the practice of mailing refunds as U.S. Treasury checks.

This modernization aligns with Executive Order 14247, Modernizing Payments To and From America’s Bank Account, requiring federal agencies to transition to electronic disbursements.

Please review the following critical updates, consequences of inaction, and new resources to ensure your business is prepared.

Key Deadlines and Actions

To ensure readiness, you must complete the following steps before February 5, 2026:

1. ACE Portal Account: Trade members must maintain an active ACE Portal account.

2. Banking Information: You must submit your ACH banking information directly through the portal.

3. Non-U.S. Bank Accounts: If you are an importer who does not possess a U.S. bank account, you must either open one or designate a customs broker with a U.S. bank account to receive electronic refunds on your behalf.

Result of Inaction

Failure to update your information by the deadline will result in significant processing delays and financial disadvantages:

Rejected Refunds: If CBP attempts to issue a refund but lacks the necessary banking information, the refund will be rejected.

Loss of Interest: Crucially, if a refund is rejected solely due to a failure to provide banking information, no interest will accrue on that refund.

Manual Recovery Process: Recovering rejected funds will require a manual submission of the ACH Refund request and direct coordination with CBP’s Refunds Team via email (frn-achrefundsupport@cbp.dhs.gov). Additional info may be found here.

Key Elements for Consideration:

Do you already have an ACE Portal Account?

o If yes, confirm your Import subaccount is activated and follow the instructions for adding your ACH Banking information reference document.

o If no, you will need to confirm if you have a 5106 Importer record on file with ACE, with a contact email address on file. John S. Connor can submit an electronic request to CBP to confirm your status in ACE and add a contact email address.

Once the 5106 Importer information is confirmed and the contact email address is on file with ACE; follow the link hereto request and ACE portal electronically.
After your ACE Portal account has been activated, follow the instructions in the ACH Banking information reference document, to update your ACE account.

Do you already have an ACE Portal Account, without an Importer Sub-Account activated?

o If yes, contact your Trade Account Owner (TAO) within your organization and have them reference the document here (pg. 2). An ACE Secure Data Portal Account Application will need to be completed and emailed to CBP @ ACE.Applications@CBP.DHS.GOV

Do you have an ACE account; however, you are not associated with a US Banking institution?

o You can nominate John S. Connor to receive your refunds on your behalf by adding John S. Connor as a notify party, in your ACE Portal Account. Please contact our compliance department for additional instructions.

New CBP Resources & Documentation

CBP has released extensive resources to assist with this transition. We encourage you to review the following documents, accessible via the main ACE webpage:

NEW! ACE Portal and ACH Refunds FAQs

Reference Sheet: ACH Refund Enrollment Overview

raining Guide: ACH Refund Enrollment in the ACE Portal

Information Notice: Automated ACE Portal Application for Importer Accounts

Information Notice: ACE Portal Feature for Trade Users to Add Notify Parties

Upcoming Support Webinars

CBP is hosting trade outreach sessions via Microsoft Teams to answer questions regarding this transition. The link to the upcoming webinar may be found here.