The benefits of ACH payments go beyond speed. Today’s treasury and payments teams are leveraging ACH to lower transaction costs, enhance customer experience and streamline internal operations. And they’re using it for a wide range of recurring and scalable payment needs.

As part of AFP’s Best of AFP 2024 webinar series, industry leaders from Nacha and the corporate community came together to share the latest insights on ACH adoption, innovation and strategy. Whether you're navigating urgent payments, seeking to reduce fraud risk or looking for untapped efficiencies, the following takeaways will help you rethink how ACH fits into your payment strategy.

ACH Network growth is booming

The ACH Network is rapidly growing, seeing a 6.7% increase in payment volume, to 33.6 billion payments in 2024, and an 11.6% increase in business-to-business (B2B) ACH payments in 2024, according to Nacha.

This growth is not just about volume; it’s also about payments fraud prevention. With the sustained growth of ACH — particularly the double-digit increase in B2B payments — it’s clear that businesses are moving away from checks, which are still the payment method most susceptible to fraud.

ACH helps reduce fraud risk

Fully 63% of organizations reported that they faced check fraud in 2024, according to the 2025 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey Report, underwritten by Truist. In comparison, 38% of organizations were victims of ACH debit fraud, and 20% were victims of ACH credit fraud.

Organizations can meaningfully reduce their exposure to fraud by shifting from paper to electronic payments. The risks and delays associated with the use of checks and the manual processes that sustain them are unnecessary. ACH offers a safer, more efficient alternative with predictable timing, electronic records and lower cost.

Eliminating checks also makes routing and account numbers less vulnerable to theft and misuse, as checks are the primary source of information used to initiate unauthorized ACH debits against an account.

Furthermore, new Nacha rules mandating monitoring of outbound ACH payments for signs of fraud by 2026 will help corporates and banks detect and prevent newer, faster-moving types of fraud that traditional tools, such as debit blocks and positive pay, can’t catch. Unlike unauthorized debits, these newer scams often involve authorized but fraudulent outbound payments, making monitoring critical.

Same Day ACH has seen rapid adoption

Same Day ACH payment volume increased 45% in 2024, with more than 1.2 billion payments made that year, according to Nacha. This growth reflects a broader shift in payment expectations and capabilities. Same Day ACH was primarily used for urgent payroll or vendor payments, but after the per-payment limit was raised to $1 million, high-value payments, such as mergers and acquisitions (M&A) closings, became a viable use case.

Underused consumer debit use cases are a growth area

ACH is the most common payment method among consumers for paying bills, with 15.2 billion consumer ACH debits in 2023, according to Nacha. Many organizations, especially those that collect subscription fees, dues or donations, can lower payment costs and improve cash flow by offering ACH as an option for recurring consumer debit payments.

Card-based payments often carry higher fees and failure rates and require more frequent updates from consumers. ACH, on the other hand, is stable and cost-effective, making it ideal for recurring transactions.

While consumers not knowing their routing numbers could present a barrier, open banking and “pay by bank” tools could alleviate user issues by allowing them to securely link their accounts without needing to know their routing number.

Corporate use cases for ACH

As the ACH Network has grown, so too have the ACH use cases for corporates. “On the credit side, there’s so much efficiency for handling large volumes of small- to medium-sized payments with minimal fees and consistent timing,” said Lee-Ann Perkins, CTP, Assistant Treasurer, Senior Director, at Ankura.

Corporate ACH use cases for credits include:

• Payroll
• Travel and expense (T&E), pension, bonuses, commissions
• Refunds
• Disbursements, cashouts, dividends
• Insurance claims
• Vendor payments
• Tax payments and benefit remittances

On the debit side, ACH can be used for cash concentration and receivables/collections, including bills, subscriptions, services, investments, dues and donations. “We can ensure timely and consistent cash flow while reducing manual invoicing and reconciliation efforts,” explained Perkins.

Additionally, ACH can improve the customer and vendor experience. Perkins added, “ACH enables automation and straight-through processing, which not only reduces human error, but also sends the message to our customers and vendors that we have a payment processing method that is automated, efficient and available for all.”

Want to learn more about ACH payments? Download the AFP Payments Guide to ACH: What Corporates Need to Know, underwritten by Nacha.