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beginning April 1, 2021, a business will pay 1.9 percent plus
Insider’sreport 10 cents for every payment made to its Venmo profile.
on payments And here's the nifty thing: every time a consumer uses
Venmo to make a payment, unless they initiate privacy
settings, the transaction appears on a mobile feed for all
their followers and friends to see. Research consistently
COVID spurs strong ACH shows that word of mouth is a great way to land new
customers, Venmo said.
gains, P2P big driver "Accepting Venmo payments allows a merchant to welcome

their purchase activity on Venmo's social feed, a powerful
By Patti Murphy Venmo's millions of highly engaged users who love sharing
ProScribes Inc. recommendation engine to other Venmo users," said a
Venmo spokesman in an interview with Business News
he automated clearing house payment system's Daily.
business is booming. Nacha, the ACH governing
body, reported a record 26.8 billion payments Zelle, with 27 million users, reported huge surges in
T passed through the network in 2020, an 8.9 per- activity in 2020, with transaction volumes up 58 percent
cent gain over 2019. At $61.9 trillion, the value of payments and transaction values up 62 percent. Zelle also reported
sent through the ACH was up 10.8 percent over 2019. that 11 financial institutions, serving about a third of
small businesses in the United States, now support small
Jane Larimer, Nacha’s president and CEO, said business business payment acceptance via the network. At least one
changes and changing payment preferences ushered in of those institutions, U.S. Bank, parent of leading merchant
by the COVID-19 pandemic are one reason for the surge in acquirer Elavon, is waiving merchant acceptance fees on
electronic payments sent through the system. Zelle for the duration of the pandemic.

"As the world was turned upside-down by COVID-19, the Zelle member Bank of the West is using a turnkey service
modern ACH network rose to the challenge to help keep vital from Fiserv to support Zelle acceptance by small businesses.
payments moving quickly and accurately among American Hisham Salama, the bank's executive vice president, said
consumers, businesses and government agencies," she retail customers have been flocking to Zelle in the wake of
said. "Today's ACH network is truly industrial strength, COVID. "And we have been receiving significant customer
handling large volumes of Direct Deposits for economic demand from small businesses looking for similar
impact payments, unemployment benefits, and assistance capabilities," Salama added.
payments for other organizations and institutions in the Topline ACH data
U.S."
Nacha noted that additional "core" ACH payment categories
The P2P connection also experienced significant growth in 2020, including:
Some of the biggest gains were in person-to-person • Direct deposit of salaries and wages, benefits and
transactions, which posted a 42 percent increase over 2019 assistance payments, and other disbursements from
to total 218 million, Nacha said. public- and private-sector organizations rose by 12
percent over 2019, to total eight billion payments.
Mobile apps for P2P payments, like PayPal's Venmo and • Internet-initiated payments by consumers—bill
the bank-owned Zelle network, are fast becoming go-to payments, account transfers, etc.—grew 15 percent to
options for money exchanges between family members and top 7.7 billion payments.
friends. That's not all, however: each also wants to spread
acceptance to businesses, particularly small businesses. • B2B payments to vendors and related transfers grew
by about 11 percent to 4.4 billion.
Venmo, which claims 65 million users, stated that the app
can be used at any merchant locale that already accepts Meanwhile, use of same-day ACH for funding payroll and
PayPal mobile payments. Some of the more well-known other types of payments rose 39 percent to 347 million pay-
merchants already accepting PayPal mobile payments ments last year; at $460 billion, the total value of same-day
include Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, Lowes and Walmart, ACH payments was up 86 percent over 2019. Larimer said
according to PayPal. the increase reflects Nacha's increasing the same-day ACH
transaction limit from $25,000 to $100,000 last March.
To accept customer payments via Venmo, a small business
needs to set up a "business profile," which is connected to Patti Murphy is senior editor at The Green Sheet and self-described pay-
an existing consumer Venmo account. Currently, it's free ments maven of the fourth estate. Follow her on Twitter @GS_PayMaven.
to accept payment for goods and services via Venmo, but
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