ACH Network payment volume grew by 6.1% in 2021’s fourth quarter, a rise maintained by strong gains in the healthcare and B2B sectors, along with same-day ACH payments, according to a Thursday (Jan. 20) press release.
Nacha, which oversees the network, said in the release that it logged 7.5 billion ACH payments in the last quarter of the year, 426 million more than the same period in 2020. The value of those payments, $18.9 trillion, is an increase of 13.4%.
“The fourth-quarter results reaffirm what we have been seeing almost from the start of the pandemic: a sustained move to electronic payments among businesses, consumers and governments,” said Nacha President and CEO Jane Larimer in the release. “The nation is well-served by the modern ACH Network.”
The fourth quarter saw a rise in healthcare claim payments to medical and dental offices as those professionals “continue to recognize the convenience and safety of receiving their funds electronically,” the release stated. The sector saw 112.2 million payments, marking the second consecutive quarter above the 100 million mark.
B2B payments had already been increasing even before the pandemic caused businesses to move away from paper checks, and they rose by 17.4% in Q4 2021, according to the release.
Meanwhile, direct deposit volume dropped 1.4% from the previous year when the second round of economic impact payments was added to the volume, the release stated.
Same-day ACH volume and value increased by a respective 75.1% and 92.9% in the fourth quarter with 169.3 million payments valued at $268.4 billion, according to the release.
Last year, the network marked record-setting volumes in the second quarter of the year, helped in part by the 110 million direct deposit stimulus payments to taxpayers from the federal government during the pandemic.
Read more: ACH Network Hits 2.7 Billion Monthly Payments In Record-Setting Quarter
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