WASHINGTON—The increase in the value of ACH transfers accounted for more than 90% of the rise in noncash payments value from 2018 to 2021, according to a new 2022 Federal Reserve Payments Study (FRPS), which also found the number of ATM cash withdrawals dropped substantially from 2018 to 2021.
According to the Fed, the initial release includes top-line figures for the core noncash payment methods used in the United States by consumers, businesses, and governments, including payments by general-purpose and private-label cards, automated clearinghouse (ACH) transfers, and checks.
The report also covers automated teller machine (ATM) cash withdrawals. Wire transfers, used primarily for large financial transactions, are excluded from the data. Additional details will be available in future releases, the Fed stated.
Key Findings
According to the Fed, key findings in the study include:
- The value of core noncash payments in the United States grew faster from 2018 to 2021 than in any previous FRPS measurement period since 2000. “Having increased at a rate of 9.5% per year since 2018, noncash payments value reached $128.51 trillion in 2021. This rate of increase was more than twice the rate of increase in the previous three-year period (2015 to 2018) and more than three times the rate of increase from 2000 to 2018. The 2018 to 2021 increase in value reflects, in part, increases in the average value of each of the components of core noncash payments (ACH, check, and card payments),” the Fed explained.
- The increase in the value of ACH transfers accounted for more than 90% of the rise in noncash payments value from 2018 to 2021. “By number and value, the rate of increase in ACH transfers accelerated to 8.3% per year and 12.7% per year, respectively, over the period,” the Fed said. “Since surpassing checks as the highest-value noncash payment method in 2009, ACH transfers have grown to $91.85 trillion, 72% of core noncash payments value in 2021.”
- The average value of check payments increased substantially from 2018 to 2021. “The value of check payments increased slightly (0.6% per year) despite a significant drop in the number of check payments. As a result, the average value of check payments increased from $1,908 in 2018 to $2,430 in 2021,” the Fed said. “By number, checks declined at a rate of 7.2% per year since 2018, dropping to 11.2 billion. In 2021, the value of check payments stood at $27.23 trillion, which was approximately 21% of noncash payments value.”
- The value of card payments grew faster from 2018 to 2021 than in any previous FRPS measurement period. “Rising 10.0% per year since 2018, card payments value reached $9.43 trillion in 2021, accounting for approximately 7% of noncash payments value in that year. Among the card types, prepaid debit card payments grew at the greatest rate by value since 2018, 20.6% per year, and reached $0.61 trillion in 2021, but remained a relatively small part (6.5%) of the value of all card payments, the study shows,” according to the Fed.
- The number of core noncash payments grew by a larger amount from 2018 to 2021 than in any previous FRPS measurement period since 2000. “Specifically, the number of noncash payments grew by 30.7 billion, increasing to 204.5 billion in 2021. The growth rate, at 5.6% per year, was smaller than the growth rate from 2015 to 2018 (6.6%).”
- The increase in the number of card payments accounted for more than 84% of the growth in the number of noncash payments from 2018 to 2021. The Fed said that despite a temporary drop in 2020, the number of card payments grew by 25.9 billion from 2018 to 2021. “Nevertheless, the rate of increase in the number of card payments from 2018 to 2021, at 6.2% per year, was lower than the growth of approximately 9.9% per year recorded from 2000 to 2018. With 157.0 billion payments in 2021, card payments accounted for approximately 77% of noncash payments by number.”
- The number of non-prepaid debit card payments increased most of all card types. Non-prepaid debit cards reached 87.8 billion payments, or approximately 56% of all card payments in 2021, according to the Fed. Credit card payments experienced the second-largest increase, rising to 51.1 billion, or about one-third of all card payments in 2021. Prepaid debit card payments had the greatest growth rate by number (9.6% per year), reaching 18.1 billion payments in 2021, the report shows.
- The number of ATM cash withdrawals dropped substantially from 2018 to 2021. ATM cash withdrawals declined at a rate of 10.1% per year, falling to 3.7 billion in 2021. By value, ATM cash withdrawals also declined, but at a slower rate, reflecting an increase in the average value of an ATM cash withdrawal from $156 in 2018 to $198 in 2021.