2018 a ‘milestone year’ for ACH

Last year marked a ‘milestone year’ for the Automated Clearing House, as the network’s volume of cleared payments climbed to nearly 1.5 billion, driven in part by same-day payments and person-to-person (P2P) transactions. 2018 also marked the fourth straight year of ACH growth in excess of 1 billion payments, reports NACHA, the Electronic Payments Association.

In all, 23 billion payments valued at $51.2 trillion cleared through the ACH last year. NACHA noted that the total value of ACH payments was more than 2.5 times that of the nation’s 2017 gross domestic product.

Following are additional report highlights:

• Year-over-year growth: The 2018 tallies represent a 6.9 percent volume increase over 2017, and a 9.5 percent increase in total value. The year-over-year increase in total value marked the sixth consecutive year that the total value of ACH payments increased by at least $1 trillion.

• Same day ACH: 2018 was the first full year during which same-day settlement information was available for both ACH credits and debits. Nearly 178 million same-day payments were cleared through the ACH last year, representing a 137% increase over 2017 totals. The total value of same-day ACH items was $159.9 billion, up 83% over 2017.

• P2P growth: The most significant ACH volume gains for 2018 were in person-to-person payments, like those initiated through PayPal’s Venmo or the bank-owned Zelle network. P2P payment volume through the ACH was up 32.2%, to total 128.7 million transactions valued at $209.6 billion.

• Internet payments growth: Online payments, primarily from consumer ecommerce transactions, were up 14.2%, to total 5.9 billion transactions valued at $2.9 trillion.

• Direct Deposit transaction growth: Direct deposit volume rose a modest 4.4 percent to total 6.8 billion payments worth a combined $9.7 trillion. Direct Deposit is one of the oldest ACH applications, having first been introduced in the late 1970s.

• Business-to-business payments growth: NACHA reported that the total volume of B2B items grew last year by 9.4 percent. B2B transactions comprised the largest chunk of ACH transactions last year by value ($34.9 trillion), but at 4.6 billion transactions the total was eclipsed by both Direct Deposit and Internet payments via the ACH.

“The results for 2018 make clear that the ACH Network is vibrant and continues to be a vital component of the nation’s economic engine,” said NACHA CEO Jane Larimer. “With more enhancements and same-day ACH being rolled out this year and next, the experience for businesses and consumers will only get better."

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