ACH volume increases to 23 bln payments in 2014 - report

According to recent statistics released by NACHA — The Electronic Payments Association, a total of more than USD 40 trillion was transferred over the ACH Network in 2014, increasing more than 3% compared to 2013.

The ACH Network has continually added functionalities over its history to enable a host of electronic payments, such as payroll, bill payments, business payments, online and mobile payments, international payments and a variety of others.

Reflecting the industry’s continued adoption and use of electronic payments, native electronic payments, or transactions that start and end as electronic, constituted 90% of ACH Network volume. In 2014, there were more than 16 billion native electronic payments, up 6.3% from 2013, the study points out.

Specific categories of native electronic payments that saw significant growth in 2014 according to the report include online payments (web transactions), business-to-business (B2B) payments (CTX and CCD transactions), and recurring payments (PPD transactions), such as direct deposit via ACH.

The research highlights that web transactions — debit or credit payments made when authorization is provided via the internet or a wireless network — grew 10.2% in 2014. A total of 3.6 billion web transactions were exchanged via the network in 2014, including 7.4 million web credits that were person-to-person (P2P) payments. The implementation of new rules in March 2014 enabled the use of the web credit to identify and standardize P2P payments processed via the ACH Network. In total, web transactions accounted for almost 20% of ACH Network volume.

Regarding B2B payments, in 2014, the ACH Network processed a total of 2.7 billion CTX and CCD transactions, including 149 million healthcare payments via ACH, which are CCD transactions. This was an increase of 7.3% over 2013. Addenda record use associated with B2B payments grew as well, with CTX and CCD addenda use collectively increasing 7.7%.

Recurring payments, or PPD transactions, which account for almost half of total ACH Network volume, grew by 4.4% in 2014. Direct Deposit via ACH, or PPD credits, increased 3.6% over 2013.