ACH Network Adds More Than 1B New Payments In 2018

NACHA, the steward of the ACH Network, announced Tuesday (Feb. 19) that last year was a milestone year for the ACH Network with payment volume climbing to close to 1.5 billion payments.

In a press release, NACHA said it is the fourth year in a row that the ACH Network added more than 1 billion new payments. “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,” NACHA Chief Operating Officer Jane Larimer said in the press release. “With more enhancements to Same Day ACH being rolled out this year and next, the experience for businesses and consumers will only get better.”

According to NACHA, ACH Network volume hit close to 23 billion payments in 2018, marking a year-over-year increase of 6.9 percent. It also marks the highest growth rate since 2008, NACHA said in the press release. Broken down a different way, NACHA said it amounts to close to 70 payments for every person residing in the U.S.

For all of 2018, NACHA said, the value of ACH payments reached $51.2 trillion, which is a 9.5 percent increase compared to 2017. It’s also the sixth year in a row that ACH payment value rose by at least $1 trillion. The value of  2018 ACH payments was more than two and a half times that of the gross domestic product of the nation in 2017.  As for same day ACH volume, NACHA said it “soared” during 2018, which was the first full year that same-day debits and credits were available. There were close to 178 million same-day ACH payments in 2018, said NACHA, with 98.3 million credits and 79.7 million debits. Overall same day ACH volume increased 137 percent compared to 2017, with total same day ACH value up 83 percent in 2018 at $159.9 billion.

During the year, NACHA said, several core ACH use cases saw big growth including business-to-business payments, direct deposit, internet payments, payments from health plans to medical and dental providers and person-to-person payments.