NACHA Pinpoints B2B’s Role In Same Day ACH Adoption (So Far)

In the latest PYMNTS Faster Payments Tracker, powered by NACHA, we learned that adoption and use of Same Day ACH is on the rise, with no banks reporting an increase in fraud as a result of implementing Same Day ACH capabilities, with stakeholders in the B2B payments space eyeing faster supplier payments and more efficient cross-border payments as two key drivers behind the demand.

On Friday (April 14), NACHA released more stats about ACH to explore how businesses are using the payment rail — same-day or not.

According to the data, the number of ACH transactions in 2016 topped 25.6 billion, worth a collective $43.7 trillion, NACHA said.

“2016 marked a significant year for the continued evolution and growth of the ACH Network,” said NACHA President and CEO Janet O. Estep in a statement. “With the implementation of Same Day ACH, we have added to the robust capabilities of the Network, now enabling not only next-day payment capabilities, but same-day capabilities as well. The added attribute of speed provides additional flexibility and options to a system that has the capacity to process credit and debit transactions, payments and robust information together, domestic and international transactions, business and consumer payments, and more. And it is this versatility that makes ACH payments a valued payment type and supports the continued growth of the ACH network.

According to NACHA, Same Day ACH credits, which launched in September, have now facilitated 13 million transactions valued at nearly $17 billion. Same-day direct deposits accounted for more than half of that Same Day ACH volume, with B2B payments making up a third.

“The volume figures show strong use of Same Day ACH in its first few months of activity and broad use,” Estep continued. “Like traditional ACH transactions, Same Day ACH has many of the same robust application capabilities and the numbers show that businesses and consumers are taking full advantage of it. When Same Day ACH debits become available in September of this year, we expect to see this trend continue and anticipate even stronger and more variety in the use of Same Day ACH.”

Overall, B2B payments make up 15 percent of ACH Network volume, NACHA found.