Payments

For many small businesses struggling to survive the devastating economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) promised a lifeline.

It can be a moment of anxiety, worry and mistrust: that moment when a digital payment is sent into what was once called the ether. Will the funds end up in the right bank account? Will fraudsters hitch a ride? Those and other questions can vex people involved in the transaction — and keep them glued to paper-based payments until the questions can be answered to their satisfaction.

For many small businesses struggling to survive the devastating economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) promised a lifeline.

Monthly ACH volume has hit an all-time high, topping 2 billion transactions and $4.5 trillion in payments in August, according to Nacha – The Electronic Payments Association.

Those numbers represent a 10% increase in transaction volume and a 12% increase in dollar value over August 2017. Nacha said it’s on track to add more than a billion new ACH payments for the fourth year in a row.

“The ACH Network is thriving, and has achieved a milestone of more than 2 billion payments in one month,” Nacha COO Jane Larimer said. “This impressive growth demonstrates that businesses and consumers are choosing to use ACH payments.”

Monthly ACH volume has hit an all-time high, topping 2 billion transactions and $4.5 trillion in payments in August, according to Nacha.

For many small businesses struggling to survive the devastating economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) promised a lifeline.

The Faster Payments Task Force is working toward launching a real-time payments network in the U.S. by 2020. But faster payments could open the door to more fraud, as has been experienced in other countries, such as the U.K. and Mexico. Meanwhile, the U.S. has already experienced fraud exploits on a number of P2P payments networks, including Venmo and Zelle, that offer money transfers between consumers. Those exploits focus on the lack of scrutiny that faster payment transactions receive due to the speed of funds transfers.