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NEWS RELEASE
NACHA Reports Nearly
16 Billion ACH Payments in 2006
US Financial Institutions
Added 2 Billion ACH Payments to Annual Volume
Chicago,
Illinois, April 16, 2007 - Nearly 16 billion
automated clearing house (ACH) payments were made in
2006, a 14.5 percent increase over 2005, according
to statistics compiled by NACHA – The Electronic
Payments Association and issued today at the
PAYMENTS 2007 conference.
“Annual ACH
payment volume continues to double every 5 years,
and growth is occurring across all transaction
categories,” said Elliott C. McEntee, President and
CEO of NACHA. “The growth of the ACH Network shows
the value that financial institutions and their
customers experience from ACH payments.”
The nation’s
financial institutions originated 15.4 percent more
ACH payments in 2006 than in 2005. The number of
these payments was 14.98 billion, a jump of more
than 2 billion over 2005, and valued at $30.3
trillion. Inter-bank ACH payments – those sent from
one financial institution to another – increased by
16.5 percent in 2006; on-us payments – those that
remain within a single financial institution –
increased by 12.2 percent.
The remaining ACH
payments were originated by the Federal government,
which exceeded 1 billion ACH payments in a year for
the first time. The Federal government’s ACH volume
was up 2.8 percent over 2005, and valued at $3.5
trillion.
ACH payments
include Direct Deposit of payroll, Social Security
benefits and tax refunds, Direct Payment of consumer
bills, bill payments by Internet and telephone,
check conversion, business-to-business payments, and
Federal tax withholdings.
Consumer
Payments
American consumers
use the ACH Network primarily to pay bills
automatically and electronically, and to receive
income and benefit payments via Direct Deposit.
NACHA estimates that 7.5 – 8.0 billion consumer
bills were collected via the ACH Network in 2006,
including pre-authorized debits, Internet and
telephone payments, and checks converted into ACH
payments.
Annual volume for
Accounts Receivable (ARC) check conversion grew by
an estimated 700 million payments to 2.8 billion, an
increase of 32 percent. ARC accounted for 35 percent
of financial institutions’ ACH transaction growth in
2006.
Internet-initiated
ACH payments (WEB) grew by an estimated 35 percent
to 1.8 billion. NACHA estimates that 85 percent of
Internet-initiated ACH payments are to pay bills via
companies’ or billing services’ web sites, and 10
percent are to transfer funds.
The number
pre-authorized, automatic bill payments – known as
Direct Payment - increased by 6.1 percent to 3.3
billion payments.
Direct Deposit is
still the most widely used type of ACH payment. The
number of Direct Deposits in 2006 increased by 5.5
percent to 4.7 billion payments. Direct Deposit is
used for payroll, expense and travel reimbursement,
pension and annuity payments, interest payments,
retirement and mutual fund distributions, Social
Security, Veterans and other government benefits,
and tax refunds. The average dollar amount of a
Direct Deposit was $1,325.
Business
Payments
American
businesses and governments use the ACH Network for
payments to and from trading partners, vendor
payments, business-to-government tax withholdings,
intra-company cash management transfers, and to
exchange remittance information regarding payments.
The total number
of these business-to-business ACH payments grew to
2.3 billion in 2006, up 10.9 percent over 2005.
Financial electronic data interchange - the
electronic exchange of payment-related information
or financial-related documents in standard formats
between business partners on the ACH Network - grew
by 8.7 percent in 2006. In 2006 there were 995
million EDI-formatted remittance records
accompanying ACH payments. The number of financial
EDI payments in 2005 was 288 million, up 12.6
percent over 2005.
|
ACH Volume (in millions) |
| |
2006 |
2005 |
% Increase |
| Commercial |
|
|
|
| Inter-bank |
11,320 |
9,719 |
16.5 |
| On-Us |
3,661 |
3,262 |
12.2 |
| Commercial Total |
14,980 |
12,981 |
15.4 |
| Federal Government |
1,004 |
976 |
2.8 |
| Total |
15,984 |
13,957 |
14.5 |
About the ACH
Network and NACHA - The Electronic Payments
Association
The Automated Clearing House (ACH) Network
facilitates commerce, electronically, by serving as
an efficient, reliable and secure payments system.
NACHA, led by member depository financial
institutions and payments associations, fulfills
this purpose by managing the development,
administration, and governance of the ACH Network,
and by providing superior services and value to its
members as the industry association responsible for
ACH payments. NACHA represents more than 11,000
financial institutions through direct memberships
and a network of regional payments associations, and
650 organizations through its industry councils.
Visit NACHA on the Internet at
www.nacha.org.
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