Nacha: Same-Day ACH Payment Values Jump 51%

The head of the ACH Network says same-day ACH payments have grown “significantly” in 2023.

In the first six months of the year, the value of those payments was nearly $1.2 trillion, a 51.7% increase from the prior year, while the volume of same-day ACH (automated clearing house) payments was at 385.6 million, a 13.7% increase, Nacha reported Tuesday (July 25).

“The growth in the volume and especially the value of Same Day ACH payments shows the impact and the benefits of increasing the payment limit in 2022 to $1 million,” Nacha President and CEO Jane Larimer said in a news release.

“Whether it’s emergency and unscheduled payroll, insurance claim payments, account transfers or business-to-business payments, these results show that Same Day ACH is a leader in faster payments.”

For the network overall, growth continued in the second quarter of 2023, with 7.8 billion payments moving $20 trillion up a respective 4.3% and 2.9% respectively compared to the second quarter of last year.

Business-to-business (B2B) payments rose 10.4% from a year earlier, to north of 1.6 billion, continuing a double-digit growth trajectory seen last quarter.

“Many businesses and organizations are already aware of the value proposition that ACH payments provide,” Larimer said. “For others, the growing instances of check fraud should be ample reason to make the switch away from paper in making and receiving B2B payments.”

As noted here earlier this month, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) recently reported that check fraud almost doubled over the past year, reaching 680,000 reports in 2022, versus 350,000 complaints in 2021.

“This is bad news for businesses that still make payables via traditional means, as the risk of these payments being stolen is higher than ever,” PYMNTS wrote. “A single small public relations firm in New York reported 15 checks from clients being stolen in the mail, with thieves succeeding in cashing 10 of them.”

And research by PYMNTS backs up FinCEN’s findings, with a recent study showing that 98% of B2B retailers, manufacturers and marketplaces have fallen victim to fraud or have missed opportunities to do business with firms that were later revealed to be legitimate for fear of fraud. Check fraud accounted for 63% of the fraud incidents among the businesses that experienced payments fraud overall.