ACH Volume Is Soaring. Here's How that Threatens Banks.
•February 16, 2026
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Companies Mentioned
Why It Matters
The accelerating ACH adoption erodes banks’ deposit bases and interchange income, while the higher same‑day limit could reshape corporate payment flows and intensify competition with real‑time rails.
Key Takeaways
- •ACH payments hit 35.2 billion, +5% YoY
- •Same‑day ACH limit proposed $10 million
- •Checks now 26% of B2B payments, down 7 points
- •P2P volume rose 19.8% to 470 million
- •Real‑time rails still far behind ACH volume
Pulse Analysis
The ACH network posted a record 35.2 billion payments in 2025, representing a 5 percent increase over 2024 and moving the total value to $93 trillion. Growth was led by person‑to‑person transfers, which jumped 19.8 percent to 470 million transactions, and business‑to‑business payments, up 9.9 percent. At the same time, check usage in B2B contexts fell to 26 percent, a seven‑point drop since 2022, as firms chase lower‑cost, lower‑fraud alternatives. For banks, the shift means fewer deposits and reduced card‑interchange revenue as consumers park cash in digital wallets that settle over ACH.
Nacha’s proposal to raise the same‑day ACH per‑transaction ceiling from $1 million to $10 million would align the rail with the Clearing House’s RTP network and the FedNow instant‑payment service, both of which already support ten‑million‑dollar transfers. The higher limit could unlock larger corporate payments, making ACH a more attractive substitute for wire transfers and credit‑card settlements. New risk‑management rules slated for this year aim to curb business‑email‑compromise fraud by imposing baseline monitoring on all non‑consumer participants. Together, these changes could deepen ACH’s role in the payments ecosystem while preserving its low‑cost advantage.
Looking ahead, pay‑by‑bank initiatives from retailers such as Walmart and a growing roster of utilities and gas stations are feeding additional volume into the ACH system. Fintech platforms that aggregate consumer balances—Venmo, PayPal, and emerging digital‑banking apps—continue to divert funds from traditional deposit accounts, pressuring banks to innovate or partner. While real‑time rails are gaining traction, their transaction counts remain an order of magnitude lower than ACH’s monthly peak of 3.22 billion payments. Consequently, ACH is likely to remain the backbone of U.S. electronic payments for the foreseeable future, even as competition intensifies.
ACH volume is soaring. Here's how that threatens banks.
Key insights
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ACH Network volume is on the rise as checks decline.
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The growth could reduce bank deposits and card payments.
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Nacha has proposed increasing the per‑transaction dollar limit for same‑day ACH to $10 million from $1 million.
Forward look
Nacha has proposed increasing the per‑transaction dollar limit for same‑day ACH to $10 million from $1 million.
The ACH Network reached new highs in 2025, with person‑to‑person and business‑to‑business payment volumes experiencing robust growth.
Full‑year ACH Network volume totaled 35.2 billion payments, up almost 5 % over 2024, according to a recent press release from Nacha. The value of those payments reached $93 trillion, a nearly 8 % boost, representing the 13th consecutive year of value increasing by more than $1 trillion, Nacha said.
“ACH is a backbone of payments,” said Ben Danner, senior analyst with Javelin Strategy & Research, to American Banker. He was especially impressed with the growth in P2P volume, up 19.8 % to 470 million.
Consumers are building up balances in apps like Venmo and PayPal, which doesn’t bode well for banks if they’re taking money out of bank accounts and parking it with these services, so it remains a trend for banks to watch, Danner added. The other standout is B2B volume, which grew at a healthy 9.9 % clip, suggesting businesses are using it to pay suppliers and each other rather than checks or commercial credit cards.
Indeed, B2B payments made by check continue to decline. In 2025, organizations said that just 26 % of their B2B payments were made by check, according to the Association for Financial Professionals Digital Payments Survey. That represents a 7‑percentage‑point drop from 33 % in 2022. Check usage has fallen precipitously over the years— in 2004, 81 % of organizations were using checks for B2B payments.
Manual processing and fraud vulnerability are key reasons for dropping checks. These reasons are cited by 75 % and 66 % of organizations, respectively, who plan to eliminate check use, according to the report.
Even so, Robin LoGiudice, strategic advisor with the commercial banking and payments team at Datos Insights, said it will take a long time for checks to go completely out of fashion. While large companies are moving toward electronic payments, many small businesses are still wedded to checks, she told American Banker. “Banks charge for these services, and there’s not enough volume for them to make significant money. But fintechs and others have expressed interest in the smaller market,” she said.
ACH is a popular payment method with businesses
Third‑quarter data from Datos Insights illustrates the payment methods most used by businesses. The report asked 1,036 mid‑ and large‑size companies to estimate what percentage of their business payments by volume were paid with various payment tools in the last 30 days. Results:
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ACH and same‑day ACH: 16.7 %
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Paper checks: 10 %
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Mobile payments (digital wallets or services like PayPal and Venmo, which settle over ACH): 9.2 %
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Cash: 8 %
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Purchasing card: 7.3 %
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Corporate card: 6.7 %
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RTP: 5.8 %
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Wire transfers: 5.4 %
Changes ahead
Nacha has proposed increasing the per‑transaction dollar limit for same‑day ACH to $10 million from $1 million. Comments are currently under review, including consideration of whether adjustments should be made to the proposed rule change, a spokesperson told American Banker. There is no specified time frame for this phase. The change would put same‑day ACH on par with the Clearing House’s RTP Network and the Federal Reserve’s instant payments system, FedNow, both of which raised their limits to $10 million last year.
New ACH risk‑management rules also begin taking effect this year. The rules are intended to reduce fraud, such as business email compromise. They establish a base‑level of ACH payment monitoring on parties in the ACH Network, with the exception of consumers, according to the Nacha spokesperson.
Potential for continued growth in ACH
The growth of pay‑by‑bank could also be a boon for ACH, Javelin’s Danner told American Banker.
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Walmart’s Pay by Bank is set up to use the ACH network for processing payments, allowing customers to link their U.S. bank accounts to Walmart Wallet and pay directly from their bank account during checkout, bypassing credit or debit cards.
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A number of gas stations also offer pay‑by‑bank programs that use ACH to deduct funds from customers’ accounts.
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Several phone and utility providers also offer pay‑by‑bank programs.
How real‑time rails could impact same‑day ACH
Last year marked ten years of same‑day ACH payment data. In 2016, there were 13 million same‑day ACH payments, according to Nacha. That rose to 1.45 billion payments last year. Since inception, there have been more than 5.7 billion same‑day ACH payments.
Same‑day ACH could eventually face more competition from the real‑time rails, but even when the latter are more mature, many businesses will continue to use traditional ACH, Danner told American Banker. For some use‑cases, speed isn’t the main factor—for example, for a basic payroll direct deposit, most employers won’t want to pay more to send the money.
Real‑time payments are still in their infancy in the U.S. The RTP Network, for example, processed 125 million transactions in last year’s fourth quarter (source). By contrast, the ACH Network had a record monthly volume of 3.22 billion payments in December alone.
“It’s just not a concern right now,” LoGiudice of Datos Insights told American Banker. “ACH will continue to be the forerunner, at least until real‑time payments become more ubiquitous in the U.S., and that’s far off. ACH still is the predominant payment type. It’s cheap, it works.”
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