E-Checks Score 27% Growth in the First Quarter

Use of the automated clearing house for various electronic consumer transactions continued to climb in the first quarter, rising 27% from the fourth quarter of 2003 and 123% over the year-ago period, according to the National Automated Clearing House Association, Herndon, Va. Electronic checks?in which transactions are converted to electronic debits in ACH format for settlement against consumer checking accounts?accounted for 395.4 million transactions in the first quarter, or just over one-fifth of all commercial ACH payments and 43% of all consumer debits on the ACH. The largest of the five types of e-check is the Internet service (known as WEB), which consumers use mainly to pay bills online. This reached 163.8 million transactions, up 74% from the first quarter of 2003. Dollar volume for WEB came to $51.5 billion. The fastest-growing e-check category is ARC, which refers to the electronic conversion of checks collected at remittance centers such as those maintained by utility and credit card companies. ARC transactions almost doubled from 2003's fourth quarter, rising to 142.4 million from 73.9 million. This represents an increase of 650% from the year-ago period. Overall, ACH volume increased nearly 21% in the first quarter compared to the year-ago quarter, which NACHA says is the highest such increase it has recorded since it began keeping track seven years ago. Total ACH volume?including commercial transactions and those of the federal government, but not on-us transactions?reached 2.14 billion in the first quarter, NACHA says.