Study: Electronic payments up 5% in 2014

Herndon, Va. - In 2014, ACH (automated clearing house) volume grew to almost 23 billion electronic payments, an increase of almost 5%, or 1 billion transactions, from 2013 volume. According to new statistics released by NACHA — The Electronic Payments Association, a total of more than $40 trillion was transferred via NACHA’s ACH Network in 2014, increasing more than 3% compared to 2013.



Reflecting the industry’s continued adoption and use of electronic payments, native electronic payments, or transactions that start and end as electronic, constituted 90% of ACH Network volume. In 2014, there were more than 16 billion native electronic payments, up 6.3% from 2013.



Specific categories of native electronic payments that saw significant growth in 2014 include online payments (Web transactions), business-to-business payments, and recurring payments such as direct deposit via ACH.



Web debit or credit payments made when authorization is provided via the Internet or a wireless network grew 10.2% in 2014. A total of 3.6 billion Web transactions were exchanged via the ACH Network in 2014. In total, Web transactions accounted for almost 20% of ACH Network volume.



In 2014, the ACH Network processed a total of 2.7 billion business-to-business transactions. This was an increase of 7.3% from 2013.



Recurring payments, which account for almost half of total ACH Network volume, grew by 4.4% in 2014. Direct deposit via ACH increased 3.6% from 2013.