Digital Transactions Authoritative, insightful and timely information for payments professionals
Transactions on the Electronic Payment Network, the automated clearing house network, operated by The Clearing House Payments Company LLC, totaled 20.7 billion in 2024, a 6.2% year-over-year increase, TCH reported late Monday. Dollar volume during the period totaled $56.4 trillion, a 7.6% rise from a year earlier. Dollar volume on the EPN totaled about half of ACH commercial volume in the United States, The Clearing House says.
The EPN’s 2024 transaction-growth rate follows the trend of ACH volume generally, increasing between 5% and 10% annually, according to The Clearing House. Since 2021, transaction volume on the EPN system has outpaced growth on other ACH networks, averaging 7.4% annually during that period, The Clearing House says.
A main driver of the EPN’s growth is the increasing adoption of digital payments by consumers and businesses. “We are seeing electronic payments grow across the board, including real-time payments, wire transfers, and ACH, which says the answer to the question of whether growth in other types of digital payments will come at the expense of ACH volume is, No,” says a spokesperson for New York City-based TCH.
Transaction volume on the EPN shows no signs of slowing down. On Feb. 14, the network processed a single-day record of more than 152.4 million transactions. In 2024, the EPN handled 82 million transactions per day, on average, up from 75 million daily transactions in 2023.
“Consumers and businesses are generating more digital transactions,” the TCH spokesperson says. “There was a time when consumers bought an album with 12 songs on it. Today, consumers can purchase songs individually or pay monthly for a streaming service. There’s more transactions out there.”
Business-to-business volume on the EPN system is also increasing, growing 11.6% in 2024 from a year earlier. “Businesses that were once tied to checks are now switching to electronic payments,” says the spokesperson.
One factor helping drive the overall growth in ACH volume is that the 50 largest banks in the United States do business on the EPN.
“When you look at the back story as to why ACH volume is growing, it makes sense,” the spokesperson says. “Consumers and businesses are changing their payment methods.”
Other growing payment types include direct deposit, person-to-person payments, account-to-account transfers, and bill payments, according to TCH.
The Clearing House’s Interbank Payments System, or CHIPS network, for wire transfers, set a new record for daily payment volume in 2024, clearing and settling 1,083,550 payments totaling $2.63 trillion in a single day. In addition, transaction volume on TCH’s real-time payments (RTP) network grew 38% in 2024 while dollar volume increased 94%.
