STRATEGIC PARTNERS
May 1, 2001
WASHINGTON, DC -- Automated clearing house (ACH) payments totaled almost 6.9 billion in 2000, according to statistics released byNACHA – The Electronic Payment Associationat its PAYMENTS 2001 conference.
ACH payments for 2000 totaled 6.88 billion, up 12.4 percent from the 6.12 billion payments reported for 1999. The dollar amount of the transactions grew from $19 trillion in 1999 to $20.3 trillion in 2000, a 6.5 percent increase.
ACH payments include Direct Deposit of payroll, Social Security benefits and tax refunds, Direct Payments of mortgages, car loans, insurance, utility and other bills, business-to-business payments, federal tax payments, electronic checks and, increasingly, e-commerce payments.
Commercial use of ACH payments increased by 14.1 percent, from 5.29 billion in 1999 to 6.03 billion in 2000. Significantly, commercial ACH payments processed by an ACH Operator increased by 13 percent, up from the previous year's growth rate of 9.5 percent.
In 1999, the conclusion of several major financial institution mergers moved many ACH transactions from ACH Operators -- electronic clearing houses between financial institutions --to "on-us" transactions -- payments that remain within a single financial institution. Correspondingly, the growth in on-us payments slowed from 35.5 percent in 1999 to 16.9 percent in 2000.
The number of Direct Deposits, which are 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, in 2000 increased by 8.75 percent over 1999, from 3 billion to 3.3 billion.
The number of bill payments and other consumer debit payments made over the ACH Network in 2000 totaled 2.2 billion, an 18.4 percent increase over 1999. A bill payment using the ACH network is known as a Direct Payment, and is typically used for bills such as mortgages, loans and utilities. Other types of consumer debits include charitable contributions and mutual fund or stock investments.
Thirty-two million paper checks were converted into electronic ACH debits at retail locations in 2000, the first year that statistics for this new ACH product are available. In addition, NACHA statistics also show that 3.5 million re-presented check entries were processed through the ACH Network from Sept. 15 through Dec. 31, 2000. A re-presented check entry is a returned consumer check that is re-presented for payment electronically rather than through the paper check collection system.
Use of the ACH Network for business payments, which include business-to-business payments, cash management transfers, government vendor payments and federal tax payments, increased from 1.1 billion transactions in 1999 to 1.24 billion in 2000, an 11.8 percent increase.
