Web Seminars

NACHA officials used the podium at its annual payments conference to showcase a continuing surge in e-payments. More than 18 billion automated clearinghouse (ACH) payments were made in 2007, which was a 12.6 percent increase over the prior year, according to statistics compiled by NACHA.

Interbank volume accounted for 16.9 billion payments, a 13.3 percent increase above financial institution activity in 2006. The rest of the payments were originated by the federal government.

NACHA also unveiled its annual list of top originators and receivers. JPMorgan Chase’s 3.42 billion originations—an 8.8. percent increase from last year—was more than double that of Bank of America with 1.42 billion. Bank of America was the most active receiving institution with 1.41 billion, representing a 15.3 percent increase from 2006. “ACH payment volume continues to double every 5 years, with increases experienced across all transaction categories,” said Elliott McEntee, CEO of NACHA, in a statement to the press. “This growth of the ACH Network illustrates that financial institutions and their customers recognize the value of ACH payments.” McEntee points out further statistics in The 2007 Federal Reserve Payments Study, which credited “ACH with having the largest compound annual growth rate, 18.6 percent, of all non-cash payments.”

Other highlights of the report: More than 8.5 billion consumer bills were paid via ACH in 2007, and annual volume for accounts receivable (ARC) check conversion grew by 600 million payments to 3.5 billion, a 23 percent increase. NACHA officials say that ARC accounted for 33 percent of financial institutions’ ACH transaction growth in 2007.