B2B ACH Payments up 11.7% in Q1

The dollar value of payments made by Same Day ACH have nearly doubled compared to a year ago.

During the first quarter, the value of these same-day payments leapt about 95% year over year to $565.3 billion and the number of payments increased about 21% to 186.2 million, ACH Network governor Nacha said in a Monday (April 17) press release.

These increases came during a quarter in which the total number of payments handled by the ACH Network rose about 6% year over year to 7.7 billion, according to the press release.

“Same Day ACH is a key component of how the modern ACH Network is helping meet the demand for faster payments,” Nacha President and CEO Jane Larimer said in the release. “These results clearly show the payments community’s embrace of Same Day ACH. Nacha, along with other ACH Network participants, will continue to work to enhance it.”

B2B payments continued to grow during the quarter as well. The number of B2B payments rose about 11% year over year to reach 1.6 billion, according to the press release.

PYMNTS research has found that ACH has become one of the primary payment methods in the U.S. for business uses such as paying employees, taxes and vendors because of the payment method’s speed, low cost and contactless process.

ACH is a natural go-to for firms as they digitize and innovate to keep up with the digital shift, according to the “Real-Time Payments Tracker®,” a PYMNTS and The Clearing House collaboration.

Claim payments to healthcare providers rose about 5% to 2.1 billion payments in the first quarter, according to the press release.

“Nacha has made healthcare claim payments one of its focal points, with particular outreach to dental practices, which lag behind their medical counterparts in receiving claim payments by ACH,” Nacha said in the release.

Direct deposit — which declined last year as federal economic impact payments came to an end — gained ground in the first quarter this year, rising about 5% to 2.1 billion payments, per the release.

Other major transaction types recorded gains as well, with peer-to-peer (P2P) up about 13% to 76.3 million payments and internet up about 8% to 2.4 billion payments, the release said.