Same-day ACH payments swell in Q2

Dive Brief:

Same-day ACH transactions surged 29.5% to 435.7 million payments in the second quarter of this year, Nacha said in a press release on July 30. The value of those payments grew 28.1% to $1.3 trillion.
The ACH Network transactions rose 6.2% to 9.3 billion, according to that quarterly report. The value of the payments climbed 11.1% from a year prior to $25.9 trillion, according to the release.
“Organizations continue to incorporate same-day ACH into their payment strategies because it combines faster settlement with the ubiquity of the ACH Network, which reaches virtually every U.S. bank and credit union account,” a Nacha spokesperson said in an email.

Dive Insight:

The payment system, governed by Nacha and operated by the Federal Reserve and The Clearing House, logged 9.3 billion payments overall for the second quarter, up 6.2% from the year-earlier period, as the combined value rose to $25.9 trillion, up 11.1%.

For the first quarter, the ACH Network’s payments volume rose 4.8% from a year earlier to 8.9 million transactions, and the value of those payments increased by 9.3% year over year to $24.1 trillion.

During the second quarter, the network’s business-to-business transactions rose 9.9% to 2.2 billion, while volume for the first half of the year rose slightly faster, with B2B payments up 10.3%, Nacha said in the release.

“The increase reflects continued demand for faster payment capabilities for business-to-business payments, payroll, account transfers, insurance claims, tax payments, cash concentration and other time-sensitive transactions,” the Nacha spokesperson said.

Some payment methods grew more than others in the second quarter of this year. Though internet payments, including those initiated by consumers, had one of the highest transaction type volumes, rising 7.6% to 3 billion, peer-to-peer payments grew at a faster rate, jumping 21%, year over year, to 136.6 million.

Meanwhile, direct deposits rose 3.6% from a year prior to 2.3 billion, and healthcare payments rose 2.3% from the previous year to 141.4 million transactions, Nacha said.

As the network’s transaction volume and value surge, its parent organization, Nacha, is tweaking the system to make it easier for financial firms to use. Starting Sept. 17, 2027, Nacha will raise the limit on same-day transactions to $10 million, the organization said in an April release.