The Federal Reserve Payments Study 2016
PrintAutomated Clearinghouse Payments
The ACH system can be used for a variety of funds transfers, most of which are payments between consumers and businesses. The ACH includes both credit transfers and debit transfers. ACH credit transfers are payments for which the payer’s depository institution "pushes" funds to the payee’s depository institution, such as direct-deposit payroll payments. ACH debit transfers are payments for which the payee’s depository institution "pulls" funds from the payer’s depository institution, such as an insurance or mortgage payment drawn from an individual’s account on a prearranged basis.
Total ACH payments are estimated to have reached 23.5 billion with a value of $145.40 trillion in 2015, up 3.1 billion or $16.29 trillion since 2012. Most ACH payments pass between depository institutions over the ACH network and are reported by the network operators. Some depository institutions also process ACH payments between their own customers internally, called in-house on-us payments. The present in-house on-us figures are preliminary and subject to future revisions. As a result, the total ACH payments reported here are preliminary.
Payments over the ACH network, involving one or more network operators, reached 19.3 billion with a value of $41.64 trillion in 2015, up 2.6 billion or $4.76 trillion since 2012. Payments over the ACH network grew at an annual rate of 4.9 percent by number or 4.1 percent by value from 2012 to 2015.
ACH credit transfers over the network reached 8.0 billion with a value of $26.78 trillion 2015, up 1.1 billion or $4.13 trillion since 2012. The average value of ACH credit transfers over the network grew from $3,259 in 2012 to $3,333 in 2015. ACH debit transfers over the network reached 11.3 billion with a value of $14.86 trillion in 2015, up 1.5 billion or $0.63 trillion since 2012. The average value of ACH debit transfers over the network dropped from $1,456 in 2012 to $1,321 in 2015.
