With a pandemic raging across America and the globe, daily life for billions of people has been disrupted. Everything from normal economic activity to routine social behavior has been forced to change, as societies around the world respond to the public health crisis.

In America, lockdowns brought much of the economy to a standstill, and people largely shifted their activity online. In an effort to provide relief to families and businesses, the federal government infused trillions of dollars into various programs, including direct payments to individuals and loans to small businesses.

Against this backdrop, Nacha released data on the ACH Network volume over the first half of the year. The numbers offer valuable insight into the changes taking place in the economy. In addition, Nacha’s figures reveal how reliable and valuable the ACH Network is to commercial and economic life in the U.S.

To better understand these numbers and the broader trends in the economy, PaymentsJournal sat down with Michael Herd, Senior Vice President of ACH Network Administration at Nacha, and Sarah Grotta, Director of Debit and Alternative Products Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group.

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ACH Network volume increased, even during the pandemic.

Anyone who has been following the payments industry is likely aware of how strong the ACH Network’s growth has been in recent years. With paper check use declining and electronic payments on the rise, the ACH Network has grown tremendously. Part of the growth was fueled by Nacha rolling out Same Day ACH in 2016, which allows payments to be posted and paid on the same day.

During the first quarter of 2020, the ACH Network continued to grow at its normal rate. The network’s overall volume grew by 7.1% compared to the previous year, and Same Day ACH volumes rose by 42%. In total, over 6.4 billion payments hummed across the ACH Network during the first quarter. 

ACH Q1 2020 Volume

 “We had a fairly normal pattern for things like direct deposit and internet-initiated payments,” explained Herd. Then everything changed during the last 10 days of March. “It was as if the volume fell off a cliff.”

During this time, areas around the country, especially where the outbreaks were more widespread, began to lockdown.