ACH Sees Steady Growth In 2019

The ACH Network has started off 2019 strong, with the number of payments in Q1 up 5.8 percent from the previous year. In 2018, there were 27 billion ACH payments, and more than $51 trillion in value moved across the ACH Network.

For Q1 2019, the daily average volume of payments increased 7.5 percent, while the network set a record in February 2019, when volume exceeded 100 million ACH payments per day for the first time. In addition, ACH volume was at 6 billion payments, with 3.5 billion debits and 2.5 billion credits.

Data also showed that internet-initiated payments got a 10.3 percent boost to 1.6 billion, and there were increases of more than 9 percent in both business-to-business (B2B) payments and healthcare claims payments. There was a more than 25 percent rise in person-to-person (P2P) transactions to nearly 36 million, as well as 52.7 million Same Day ACH payments, up 24 percent from the same period in 2018.

“The [Q1] results show that the ACH Network is poised for another year of sustained growth,” said NACHA COO Jane Larimer in a press release. “With additional enhancements to Same Day ACH coming later this year and into next year, the ACH Network will continue to meet the needs of the nation’s consumers, businesses and governments for fast and efficient payments well into the future.”

Last year, NACHA, the electronic payments association, announced that banks and credit unions registered 9,403 third-party senders. NACHA set a rule in 2017 that calls for financial institutions that originate ACH payments to register their third-party sender customers through the NACHA Risk Management Portal before a set deadline.

“Third-party senders are important participants in expanding access to ACH payments,” said Larimer. “The positive response by banks and credit unions in registering more than 9,000 third-party senders demonstrates their continued commitment to ACH quality.”