The Clearing House Reports 8% Growth in Real-Time Payments in 2023

Transaction volume on the Electronic Payments Network (EPN), The Clearing House ’s private sector ACH network, increased 8% in 2023.

The EPN processed more than 19 billion transactions worth $52.4 trillion during the year, helping financial institutions process and settle ACH transactions and providing related services, The Clearing House said in a Tuesday (March 12) press release .

The growth of transaction volume on EPN outpaced that of the overall U.S. ACH network, which increased 4.8% in 2023, as businesses and consumers embrace electronic payments, according to the release.

“The desire from businesses and consumers for easier and faster electronic payments is driving the increase in ACH payments along with instant payments, and we do not see this trend slowing in the years to come,” Jason Carone , senior vice president of ACH product management at The Clearing House, said in the release.

ACH volume increased across user types and use cases during 2023, per the release. Compared to the previous year, B2B payments were up almost 11%, while direct deposits and person-to-person (P2P) transfers showed steady growth.

“Consumer-initiated payments, such as account-to-account (A2A) transfers and bill payments, also increased as consumers move to faster-payment options and away from paper checks,” the press release said.

In another recent development, Mastercard said in January that it extended its multiyear partnership with The Clearing House.

Having collaborated in 2017 to launch the RTP Network, the companies are continuing to work together to develop real-time account-to-account technologies that allow for the transmission of data for the network in the U.S. and around the world.

The extended partnership between Mastercard and The Clearing House aims to encourage broader adoption of instant payments by focusing on specific sectors and industries that can benefit from real-time payments and creating a blanket adoption across both consumer and business applications, Lee Alexander , executive vice president and chief information officer at The Clearing House, told PYMNTS in an interview posted in January.

“Using the RTP rail is going to allow financial institutions to innovate and allow the banks themselves to accommodate that innovation in a much better and a more scalable way,” Alexander said. “That’s the future. It’s about building capabilities to support new and emerging areas of interest for financial institutions.”