Behind the ACH’s Sizzling Growth

I was listening to a podcast a few weeks ago (Planet Money) and was genuinlely shocked at how poor the US payments network is in relation to here in the UK.<p>Most bank transactions here complete within 2 hours (faster payments service) and are completely free.

The article characterized healthcare as an anticipated future front, but US insurers have been required to offer ACH payments since 2014.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cms.gov&#x2F;Regulations-and-Guidance&#x2F;Administrative-Simplification&#x2F;Operating-Rules&#x2F;OperatingRulesEFTandRemittanceAdvice.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cms.gov&#x2F;Regulations-and-Guidance&#x2F;Administrative-...</a>

According to my bank ACH&#x27;s can be revoked without the account holder&#x27;s permission. Similarly, once the ACH link is set, funds can be withdrawn without the account holder&#x27;s knowledge. I&#x27;m glossing over the terms and conditions account holders sign that enable this, because the essential point is that opting into an ACH funds transfer relationship can have consequences. We avoid ACH in our business for transactions of any real size.

Does anyone know what Banks and&#x2F;or services use same-day ACH? The article says same-day volume was up to $160B last year, but I&#x27;ve yet to see anything faster than next-day ACH.

Does ACH cost? I know in the UK we have faster payments, it usually shows up a few seconds later in the target account, and it&#x27;s free. I&#x27;ve mostly stopped using paypal as a result.

I wonder how much of this is practical use of ACH vs using it to enter and exit other modern payment networks like venmo and coinbase, because ACH is actually abysmal.

Server just got slashdotted. Anyone have a cached link?

If anyone&#x27;s interested in beta testing an app for easily viewing&#x2F;editing fixed length files (ACH format files) shoot me an email.

Pretty sure physical check use decline can be directly correlated to ACH use growth.