Same-day ACH volume exploded in 2024—here’s why it may struggle to keep up the pace

Article by Grace Broadbent | Jan 31, 2025

The news: Same-day ACH payment volume surpassed 1.2 billion in 2024, growing 45.3% YoY, per a press release.

Same-day growth accelerated significantly from 2023’s 22.3% increase.
It’s also growing much faster than overall ACH network payment volume, which rose 6.7% YoY in 2024.

Why this matters: Same-day ACH transactions aren’t instant. They’re settled in batches at specific times during the day, typically requiring submission before a cutoff time.

But same-day ACH payments are still capitalizing on consumer demand for faster payments.

Three-quarters of US consumers used faster payments in 2023, and 61% said they were likely to use them more often in the future, per a 2023 survey from the Federal Reserve.
And 24% of consumers said they were open to paying a premium for faster/instant payment service, at least occasionally.
Respondents cited the most interest in faster payments for peer-to-peer (P2P) and bill payments.

Interest in faster payments is also exploding for business-to-business (B2B) payments. Real-time payments support between 60% and 70% of domestic B2B transactions in the US, according to Melio.

Our take: While demand for faster payments is quickly growing, the ACH Network faces growing competition from true real-time payment players.

FedNow is still in its early days but could transform the US payments industry.
And Visa’s real-time payments scheme is also getting a major upgrade this fall: Visa Direct will start transferring funds to US bank accounts within one minute starting in April 2025.

This article is part of EMARKETER’s client-only subscription Briefings—daily newsletters authored by industry analysts who are experts in marketing, advertising, media, and tech trends. To help you start 2025 off on the right foot, articles like this one—delivering the latest news and insights—are completely free through January 31, 2025. If you want to learn how to get insights like these delivered to your inbox every day, and get access to our data-driven forecasts, reports, and industry benchmarks, schedule a demo with our sales team.