ACH payment volume grows as commercial payments volume sees an increase
The Automated Clearing House (ACH), the US-based payments network, saw an increase in Business-to-Business transactions by 12.1%, amounting to one billion transactions in Q3. Operated by NACHA, a bank-owned consortium, ACH is in the midst of rolling out real-time commercial payments to its US customer base.
Overall, the ACH reported payments volume at 6.8 billion transactions in Q3 2020, which is a 9% increase over the same period in the previous year. The value of those transactions was $15.9 trillion which is a 13.1% increase. While there was one additional banking day in Q3 2020, ACH Network volume compared on a per-day basis increased by 7.3%.
“The modern ACH Network serves the American people and businesses by delivering stimulus payments on time, and by enabling safe, remote electronic payments,” said Jane Larimer, Nacha president and CEO.
With the shift from paper-based payments to electronic payments, ACH recorded an increase in direct deposits by 15.8% to 2 billion payments, Person-to-Person (P2P) by 52% and internet-initiated payments and transfers increased by 14%.
According to the press release, “this was the second consecutive quarter in which there was a 24% decline in check conversion payments, where a consumer’s paper check is processed electronically as an ACH payment”. This is in line with Fed’s data where it reported a 10.7% decline in the volume of commercial checks it collected in Q3.
The ACH data also observed that there was an increase in same-day ACH by 41% standing at 93.9 million payments. According to ACH, when per limit transaction was raised to $100,000, this has shown an increase in average dollar amount per same-day ACH payment which rose by 31%.
Adding further, Larimer said, “Electronic ACH payments are the proven way to make payments for wages and salaries, expenses, benefits, B2B and so much more”.