If you're looking for payments reading during the holidays, take a look at a new report, the Federal Reserve Payments Study 2019, which was published last Thursday on the Federal Reserve's websiteOff-site link.

The report finds that growth in card and ACH payments has accelerated.

Here are some key findings:
  • The number of ACH credit and debit transfers grew by 6 percent a year between 2015 and 2018, exceeding the 4.9 percent per year growth rate recorded for the period from 2012 to 2015.
  • Debit and credit card payments grew at an accelerated rate of 8.9 percent a year between 2015 and 2018, up from the 6.8 percent yearly rate of increase from 2012 to 2015.
  • For general-purpose cards overall, the value of remote payments in 2018 nearly equaled that of in-person payments.
  • More than half of in-person general-purpose card payments were chip-authenticated, up from 2 percent in 2015.
  • Payments made by check fell 7.2 percent a year from 2015 to 2018.

The 2019 Federal Reserve Payments Study covers card (credit, non-prepaid debit, and prepaid debit), ACH, and check payments and ATM withdrawals. In these days of fintech and new ways to pay with a phone or fingerprint, these core noncash payment types are used not only in traditional ways but also to make possible alternative payment methods and services.

We look forward to continuing the payments conversation with you on January 6, 2020, when I will be challenging you to a game of pay-with-your-phone bingo.

Photo of Claire Greene By Claire Greene, a payments risk expert in the Retail Payments Risk Forum at the Atlanta Fed