NACHA Completes Troves of Same-Day Transactions as ACH Addresses Pandemic Concerns

The volume of faster payments increased 88 percent on the Automated Clearing House (ACH) in 2021’s Q1 compared to the same quarter in 2020.

According to NACHA reports, payments processed on the same day reached 141.1 million, to surpass the 75 million counted at the end of last year’s Q1, just before the COVID-19 pandemic took over America. The total sum of same-day ACH jumped 133 percent to hit $187.6 billion. NACHA is the supervisory board for the Automated Clearing House.

As a whole, same-day ACH payments have now exceeded 1 billion since the inception of faster payments for Credit in 2016 and ACH Debit in 2017, transacting money worth over $1 trillion over the years.

Recently (in April), NACHA lengthened the working hours for same-day ACH; the platform now settles transactions four times a day. The supervisor plans to make another change to increase the same-day transaction limit to $1million up from  $100,000 by March 2022.

The restrictions and needs tied to the chronic pandemic are visible in overall payments stats, as the governing body completed 2.7 billion ACH payments in March, its highest monthly count.

Thanks in part to the 110 million economic impact payments through direct deposit, the network managed this number. The federal government had sponsored these disbursements to counter the pandemic’s impact.

More impressive faster-payments usage was seen in February, processing 118 million payments per day, a daily record yet witnessed throughout the month.

“Though Coronavirus was the biggest bane of our existence for the past year, the digital ACH network has once more proven its resilience and vital role in payments,” said Jane Larimer, CEO at NACHA. “ACH is playing its role in helping US citizens enjoy the convenience they need while initiating millions of other transactions successfully.”

Final Words

Indeed, NACHA has held the fort for users and companies who rely on same-day payments even amid a pandemic.

As the network increases its caps and processing times, we expect to see more faster-payment transactions moving forward.

Author Bio: Blair Thomas has been a music producer, bouncer, screenwriter and, for over a decade, has been the proud Co-Founder of eMerchantBroker, the highest-rated high-risk merchant account processor in the country. Blair also understands the payment ecosystem, including ACH debit. He’s climbed in the Himalayas, survived a hurricane, and lived on a gold mine in the Yukon. He currently calls Thailand his home with a lifetime collection of his favorite books.