NACHA Issues 2004 NACHA Top 50 Lists of Originating and Receiving ACH Financial Institutions

NACHA Top 50 Originators
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NACHA TOP 50 Receivers
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San Antonio, Texas, April 11, 2005 - NACHA - The Electronic Payments Association released today at its PAYMENTS 2005 conference the NACHA Top 50 lists of the largest originating and receiving financial institutions of automated clearing house (ACH) payments for 2004.

"Inter-bank ACH payments grew by a record 23.7 percent in 2004, the highest rate since NACHA became an independent organization in1986," said Elliott C. McEntee, President and Chief Executive Officer of NACHA. "Much of the growth in 2004 is attributable to financial institutions that are using ACH debits such as ARC and WEB to service their own portfolios of consumer credit card, mortgage and loan payments."

The financial institutions in the NACHA Top 50 of originating institutions accounted for 91.6 percent of all inter-bank ACH payments in 2004, the identical percentage as in 2003. The Top 5 institutions accounted for 56.7 percent of all ACH origination activity; the Top 10 accounted for 71.6 percent. Both of these figures are increases of about 4 percentage points over 2003.

On the receiving side, the financial institutions in the NACHA Top 50 accounted for 52.1 percent of all inter-bank ACH payments in 2004. The Top 5 institutions accounted for 25.7 percent, and the Top 10 accounted for 33.7 percent. Just as on the originating side, these figures show some concentration among the Top 10 institutions, but not among the Top 50 as a whole, indicating that there is significant growth in ACH payments for financial institutions outside the Top 50.

In the Top 50 data, NACHA includes all ACH-formatted transactions that financial institutions sent to or received from an ACH Operator - an electronic clearing house among banks. ACH-formatted transactions remaining within a single institution - known as "on-us" payments - are excluded from the Top 50 results.

ACH payments include Direct Deposit of payroll and benefits, Direct Payment of consumer bills, e-checks, business-to-business payments and Federal tax withholdings. In 2004 there were more than 12 billion ACH payments worth $28.7 trillion.

About NACHA - The Electronic Payments Association
NACHA is the leading organization in developing electronic solutions to improve the payments system. NACHA represents more than 11,000 financial institutions through direct memberships and a network of regional payments associations, and 650 organizations through its industry councils. NACHA develops operating rules and business practices for the Automated Clearing House (ACH) Network and for electronic payments in the areas of Internet commerce, electronic bill and invoice presentment and payment (EBPP, EIPP), e-checks, financial electronic data interchange (EDI), international payments, and electronic benefits transfer (EBT). Visit NACHA on the Internet at www.nacha.org.