ACH payments spike

Northwestern Financial Review, May 15-May 31, 2003

The number of automated clearing house payments originated by financial institutions increased to 8.05 billion in 2002, up 13.6 percent from 2001, according to statistics released by the National Automated Clearing House Association. ACH payments include direct deposit of payroll, Social Security benefits and tax refunds, direct payment of consumer bills, business-to-business payments, federal tax payments and e-check payments.

The number of direct deposits in 2002 increased by 4.8 percent to 3.9 billion deposits, while the number of direct payments increased by 10 percent to 2.8 billion. More than 490 million e-check payments were made in 2002, nearly triple the number in 2001. A total of 233 million of these e-checks were initiated via the Internet, up 213 percent over 2001.