Same Day ACH is Here – and Paper Check Usage is UP!

The same report that finds 57% of organizations intend to use same-day ACH for last-minute payments also finds that business-to-business payments by paper check actually increased slightly from 2013, breaking the previous downward trend in check use.

In fact, 86 percent have finally integrated their check payments systems with their accounting systems.

There are still major challenges to the adoption of electronic for commercial clients, as reinforced by key findings in the AFP 2016 Electronic Payments Survey:

• A typical organization still receives 44 percent of its B2B payments by check, reinforcing the positive trends in RDC.
• Only 51 percent consider cost savings a benefit of electronic payments, which illustrates a challenging business case in many situations.
• More than a third of survey respondents are unfamiliar with the ISO20022 payments standard.

AFP’s manager of treasury and payments, Magnus Carlsson, told PYMNTS.COM that cost of initial investment may be slowing adoption of electronic payments – – faster. leaner solutions ahead should be the catalyst for more universal adoption.

The “wait and see” attitude of many organizations is not uncommon for any product adoption. Typically the best thing to do is continue to secure existing payment channels while bridging into new products and services which are best optimized for client payments.