Higher Dollar Limit, Swelling B2B Payments Support ACH Network’s Q1 Growth

The ACH Network experienced overall growth in the first quarter of 2022, in large part thanks to B2B payments and an increase in the Same Day ACH dollar limit, even with the end of government assistance programs tied to the COVID-19 pandemic.

B2B payments were up 15.5% year over year in Q1 from the first quarter of 2021, with more than 1.4 billion automated clearing house (ACH) B2B payments made in the first three months of this year, according to a Nacha report Thursday (May 12). That’s a 35.5% increase from the first quarter of 2020, when COVID-19 initially closed many workplaces.

“Many businesses and organizations have come to realize that ACH payments are not just the new normal, but the best way of doing business, given their reliability and convenience,” Jane Larimer, Nacha president and CEO, said in the company press release.

The Same Day ACH per-payment limit increased to $1 million on March 18, leading to a 53.3% increase in Same Day ACH dollar value over a year earlier to $290.3 billion, and a 7.8% volume increase to 154.2 million payments.

See also: Nacha Raises Per-Payment Limit for Same Day ACH to $1M

“The payments community has welcomed the new $1 million limit and put it to immediate use,” Larimer said. “The ACH Operators and financial institutions have worked hard to make Same Day ACH the successful modern payment option that it is.”

Overall volume on the ACH Network totaled 7.3 billion payments, up 2.2% from in 2021, moving $18.5 trillion, a 7.1% increase.

“Adding 154 million payments in a single quarter, with additional value of $1.2 trillion, speaks to the strength of the ACH Network, as it meets the needs of consumers, businesses and governments to make and receive payments,” Larimer said.

Nacha’s Same Day ACH went up from $100,000, creating new use cases and expand existing ones, including vendor and supplier payments for businesses, insurance claims, tax payments and payroll funding, the agency said at the time of the uptick.

Nacha manages the administration, development and governance of the ACH Network, which is the electronic system that facilitates the movement of money in the United States.