Fiserv Inc. says its ACCEL/Exchange debit payments network saw record-setting growth in 2009. ACCEL/Exchange set a new annual record for total transactions with nearly 960 million transactions processed in 2009 — up nearly 40 percent from 2008. December 2009 also set a new monthly record, Fiserv said in a news release, with more than 97 million transactions — a year-over-year increase of 36 percent.
Among individual delivery channels, point-of-sale transactions jumped 37 percent in 2009 to more than 891 million, while ATM transactions increased 19 percent to 68 million transactions. Nearly 300 financial institutions joined the ACCEL/Exchange network as new members in 2009, bringing the total membership to almost 2,600 FIs.
"We experienced tremendous growth in 2009," said Mike Kelly, general manager of the ACCEL/Exchange network. "2010 promises to be an equally exciting and challenging year."
Fiserv in 2009 introduced Internet PIN debit, a software-only service in the United States that enables PIN debit payments online. Additionally, in February 2010 Fiserv rolled out Convenience Payments, which allows consumers to initiate PIN-less transactions for eligible low-risk, small dollar transactions at qualified merchants. Fiserv saw PIN-less bill-payment activity on the ACCEL/Exchange network double in 2009.
2009 also saw significant growth in the number of ACCEL/Exchange ATM locations. Today Fiserv has more than 265,000 ATM locations nationwide and another nearly 2,400 surcharge-free ATMs in Canada. POS locations available to ACCEL/Exchange cardholders also grew to more than 1.3 million merchant locations across the United at local, regional and national retailers.
