Transaction volume on EPN, the ACH network from The Clearing House, grew 8 percent in 2023, outpacing the broader ACH market and continuing impressive yearly growth.
In 2023, EPN processed more than 19 billion transactions worth $52.4 trillion.
Overall 2023 U.S. ACH network volume increased 4.8 percent. EPN carried approximately half of overall 2023 U.S. ACH commercial volume. It has averaged 7.4 percent growth since 2021 as businesses and consumers continue to embrace electronic payments, leaders said.
“The Clearing House’s ACH network continues to grow year over year and regularly outpaces broader industry growth,” Jason Carone, senior vice president of ACH product management, The Clearing House, said in a release. “The desire from businesses and consumers for easier and faster electronic payments is driving the increase in ACH payments along with instant payments, and we do not see this trend slowing in the years to come.”
Growth in ACH volume has been broad across all user types and use cases. Business-to-business payments, increased almost 11 percent year over year. Direct deposit volume and person-to-person (P2P) transfers also continued to show steady growth. Consumer initiated payments, such as account-to-account (A2A) transfers and bill payments, also increased as consumers move to faster-payment options and away from paper checks.
EPN is the industry’s private sector ACH network, helping financial institutions process and settle ACH transactions and providing related services. The Clearing House and the Federal Reserve are the only ACH operators, each handling essentially half the commercial market. Year over year, EPN continues to grow and reliably processes approximately 75 million transactions each day, with a new single day record of over 147 million items in September 2023.