AFP survey finds businesses ‘actively shifting’ to ACH and other electronic B2B payments

There’s new evidence that businesses are rapidly abandoning checks in favor of ACH and other electronic payments.

The  2022 Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) Digital Payments Survey, released Oct. 4, found that just 33% of business-to-business payments in the United States and Canada are made by check. Barely a decade ago, in 2013, the figure was 50%, while as far back as 2004 it was 81%. 

“This year’s survey results suggest companies in the U.S. are actively shifting their payment methods from checks to digital alternatives,” AFP wrote. “This shift is likely due to the continuous trend of organizations moving away from paper to digital format.”

It also noted that pandemic-related office closures “provided the necessary tailwinds that pushed the use of digital payment formats to unseen levels.”

AFP’s findings are consistent with Nacha’s ACH Network statistics, which showed a 20.4% increase in B2B payments volume in 2021. Through the first half of 2022, B2B volume on the ACH Network was 2.9 billion payments, up 16% from the first half of 2021.

The trend is highly unlikely to reverse. 

“Over 40% of survey respondents indicate it is very likely that their organizations will convert the majority of B2B payments to their suppliers to digital methods in the next three years,” the survey said. “Another 27% of respondents report that it is somewhat likely their companies would move the majority of their payments to major suppliers to digital vehicles over the next three years, an increase from the 22% in 2019.” 

Read more at Nacha.