The number of transactions on the electronic payments network (EPN), the automated clearing house (ACH) for electronic funds transfers (EFT), increased by 9.6% last year, The Clearing House (TCH) announced Monday (March 7).
The rise outpaced the broader ACH market as customers continued the shift to electronic payments that accelerated during the pandemic, the company reported.
“The increasing ACH volume on TCH’s network reflects the shift to electronic payments the economy has seen during the past few years,” said TCH Senior Vice President Jason Carone in a statement. “EPN also carries half of the commercial ACH volume in the United States, a number that continues to grow as participants turn to TCH to handle their continually increasing electronic payments volume.”
In 2021, ACH network volume increased 8.7% as business and consumers chose electronic payments. During the same period, EPN controlled 50% of the ACH commercial volume in the United States and 55% of the volume from the nation’s 50 largest financial institutions (FIs), according to TCH.
The company reported 300 FIs processing with EPN. With the upcoming National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) rule change that increases the value limit for same-day ACH transactions to $1 million, volumes across U.S. ACH networks should continue to rise in 2022.
ACH allows funds to be electronically deposited at FIs while payments are made online.
In February, NACHA, which manages the development, administration and governance of the ACH Network, reported it processed 29.1 billion payments last year totaling $72.6 trillion. Same-day ACH payment volume increased by 74% last year.
Read more: ACH Network up to 29.1B Payments Valued at $72.6T in 2021
This represented the seventh consecutive year that the ACH network payment volume increased by at least 1 billion payments year over year, with 2021 seeing an increase of 2.3 billion payments over 2020.