Today over on our sister site PaymentsViews.com, our Glenbrook colleagues Carol Coye Benson and Erin McCune have each published articles about ACH. Carol recently interviewed NACHA CEO Jan Estep - see her article ACH: Big Questions for the Biggest Network. Erin's article discusses her thoughts on the future of ACH.

Synovus has announced an agreement with the University of Georgia to launch Secure Vault Payments (SVP) as a new tuition payment option. Synovus said that in 2008 it "became the first bank in the U.S. to offer customers this fast, safe and easy option for making payments online." READ MORE

Over on our PaymentsViews.com website, Glenbrook's Erin McCune shares her perspectives on last week's NACHA Payments 2009 Conference in Orlando.

See also Erin's earlier post about the keynote given by Heidi Miller from JP Morgan Chase.

NACHA has published its lists of the top 50 ACH originators and receivers for 2008. The origination side is very concentrated with the top 10 originating financial institutions accounting for 73.3 percent of all interbank ACH payments in 2008, up slightly from 72.5 percent in 2007. For the receiving side, most closely representing the distribution of financial institutions deposit accounts across the industry, the top ten receiving institutions accounted for 39.4 percent of all interbank ACH payments in 2008, up slightly from 38.3 percent in 2007.

The number of ACH payments in 2008 topped 18.2 billion, representing an increase of 1.2 billion over 2007, according to statistics released today by NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association at its PAYMENTS 2009 conference. The dollar value of consumer ACH payments made via the Internet is nearing $1 trillion annually ($939 billion in 2008). READ MORE

This week, NACHA's Payments 2009 Conference is being held in Orlando. Our Glenbrook colleagues Erin McCune and Bryan Derman are attending the conference and will be sharing some of their learnings and reactions over on Glenbrook's PaymentsViews.com. Erin kicks off the coverage with an update on the latest B2B payments stats - and she'll also be tweeting her observations from her Twitter account (@erinmccune) using the hashtag #pay09. Bryan's on Twitter too: @bdermanct. If you'd like to meet with Erin or Bryan in Orlando this week, drop them an email!

NACHA has announced that the number of US ACH payments in the 4th quarter 2008 grew by 4.5 percent over the same period in 2007, topping 3.8 billion. "Internet-initiated ACH payments (known as “WEB” entries) experienced robust growth, increasing 16.5 percent over 4th quarter 2007 volumes. Strong growth also occurred with certain business-to-business payments (known as “CTX” entries) in which remittance information is exchanged electronically. The number of these payments grew by 15 percent over 4th quarter 2007 levels." READ MORE

NACHA has announced that Heidi Miller, CEO of J.P. Morgan’s Treasury & Securities Services, will keynote and open its PAYMENTS ‘09 conference being held April 5 - 9 at the Orlando World Center Marriott in Orlando, Fla. Steve Case, chairman and CEO of Revolution LLC, will headline the Industry Agenda General Session. READ MORE

In an article titled "The Holdup at Online Banks", Karen Blumenthal writes about why "transferring money between a savings account at one bank and a checking account at another easily takes two days -- and sometimes as many as four."

NACHA has announced that its PAYMENTS 2009 annual conference will be held April 5 - 9, 2009, at the Orlando World Center Marriott in Orlando, Fla.

Glenbrook's Russ Jones recently met with Ken Myles of NACHA to get an update on NACHA's Secure Vault Payments initiative. Read on for Russ' insights and reactions to what he learned. READ MORE

Glenbrook’s Carol Coye Benson interviewed Steve Ellis, NACHA Chairman, recently about the use of ACH to access consumer checking accounts and NACHA's Secure Vault Payments initiative. Read on for her full report. READ MORE

Navy Federal Credit Union, the largest credit union in the world and the 22nd largest receiving financial institution of ACH payments in the nation, has announced it has joined NACHA—The Electronic Payments Association. READ MORE

NACHA has announced that Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) will offer NACHA’s Secure Vault Payments solution to its clients. FIS will offer Secure Vault Payments to current clients as well as financial institutions without an existing relationship with FIS. READ MORE

Forte Financial's Erin McCune was at the NACHA's Payments 2008 conference in Las Vegas last week. She's posting her notes from the conference here.

Glenbrook's Allen Weinberg and Jim Salters are attending this week's Payments 2008 conference in Las Vegas. Here's Allen's second report from today's sessions including his notes on the panel he chaired this afternoon titled “Payments aren’t about Payments Anymore”.

Glenbrook's Allen Weinberg and Jim Salters are in Las Vegas (tough duty!) attending this week's Payments 2008 conference hosted by NACHA. Allen filed his first report last night and Jim just filed his first report from the conference on yesterday's general session and the keynote by Peter Raskind, CEO of National City. If you're attending Payments 2008, be sure to "say hi" to Allen and Jim!

Glenbrook's Allen Weinberg and Jim Salters are attending this week's Payments 2008 conference in Las Vegas. Here's Allen's first report from today's sessions commenting primarily about banks (or, rather non-banks) and innovation.

NACHA has announced that more than 18 billion automated clearing house (ACH) payments were made in 2007, a 12.6 percent increase over 2006. READ MORE

NACHA has announced its Top 50 lists of the largest originating and receiving financial institutions of automated clearing house (ACH) payments for 2007. Complete listings of NACHA's Top 50 lists are available on the NACHA web site. READ MORE

JPMorgan has announced it has been ranked as the number-one financial institution in total automated clearing house (ACH) network transactions originated for 2007 by NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association. The bank has ranked first in ACH originations for a record 33 years in a row, since the inception of the network. JPMorgan saw its ACH transactions grow to nearly 4 billion in 2007, an increase of nearly 9 percent over the previous year. READ MORE

Apple Vacations has announced that it will add the Secure Vault Payments (SVP) as an additional payment option for online customers. The Automated Clearing House (ACH)-based Internet payments network allows consumers to conduct e-commerce and bill payment transactions without sharing personal account information. SVP will be available to Apple Vacations' customers this summer. READ MORE

Glenbrook's Jim Salters and Allen Weinberg will be attending the Payments 2008 conference being held this coming week - May 18-21 in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand.

Allen's chairing a panel titled "Payments Aren't about Payments Anymore" on Tuesday at 1:45 PM with Mark Lavelle (VP, Strategic Planning & Corporate Development, Bill Me Later), Todd Pearson (Vice President, PayPal), AJ Shanley (VP, Business Development, TrialPay) and Tracy Wilk (Director, Global Payments, Settlement & Fraud, Google).

The NACHA Board of Directors has selected Janet O. Estep, most recently an executive vice president with U.S. Bank, to succeed Elliott McEntee, who will retire as president and chief executive officer at the end of 2008. During the transition period, Estep will serve as president and chief operating officer and McEntee will continue as chief executive officer. READ MORE

EPN, the ACH business of The Clearing House Payments Company, is urging financial institutions to start planning now to meet OFAC requirements for new international ACH transactions (IAT) in March 2009 and has created an IAT Readiness Checklist to help financial institutions prepare. READ MORE

NACHA has announced that Secure Vault Payments is now a live alternative payment option. The ACH-based Internet payments network allows consumers to conduct e-commerce and bill payment transactions without sharing personal account information. READ MORE

The International Payments Framework Group (IPF) has announced its decision to go forward with the next phase of the project. According to IPF, 'Phase II will improve the cross-border payments process through operating rules that will enable interoperability between domestic and international ACH systems.' READ MORE

NACHA has announced that its "Electronic Billing Information Delivery Service (EBIDS), which speeds up the ability of consumers to receive electronic bills (eBills) at the online provider of their choice, recently began operation. The first transaction was the presentment and payment of a Verizon bill. Verizon is one of the founding participants of EBIDS." READ MORE

Metavante has announced that it will process and settle transactions for NACHA’s Secure Vault Payments, an automated clearing house (ACH)-based Internet payments system that allows consumers to conduct e-commerce and bill payment transactions without sharing personal or account information online.