“ACH is the engrained payment solution that sits in the background as a reliable function that doesn’t attract much fanfare and yet is critical to how we run our businesses, pay our bills, and receive government benefits and wages,” says a white paper titled “The Expanding Role of ACH in the Era of Faster Payments.” 

The ACH Network is woven into our daily payment activity. It’s the money movement infrastructure for other payment products like online and mobile bill payments and has a profound impact on the adaptation of other instant payment solutions. The ownership rate of bank accounts in the U.S. is 93 percent. Last year, nearly $56 trillion in transaction value was processed through the ACH Network. Simply put, the staying power of ACH is fueled by consumers, small businesses and large corporations. 

Recently, the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) announced the new dollar limit for Same Day ACH will now be $100,000. The new limit is expected to be even more useful for businesses and consumers, including direct deposit transactions for insurance claims and disaster relief. The increasing need for large-scale payment processing is bolstering the industry and moving us toward a system that supports transactions at every hour of the day.

NACHA reports that the number of business-to-business transactions grew $3 trillion in value from 2018 to 2019. Major business customers of organizations are now more likely to use ACH than checks for payments. 

Looking at checks, credit cards, domestic and international wires, ACH is on the lower end of the scale for costs. That’s because the processing system is a well-known format that other transaction processing systems have been built around. ACH can reach almost every consumer and perform both debit and credit transactions. 

Compared to other payment types, ACH processes are cost-efficient and one of the least expensive systems. Whether it’s bill pay, payroll or person-to-person payment like Venmo, ACH supports the future of the payment industry. Boost efficiency, get paid faster and offer your customers alternative payment options with ACH processing.