Today, the numbers can do the talking about noncash payments in 2021.

The chart below shows the value of noncash payments from the first measurement year of the Federal Reserve Payments Study, 2000, to the latest, 2021. Noncash payments grew more from 2018 to 2021 than in any prior three-year measurement period: 9.5 percent per year from 2018 to 2021.

Chart 1 of 4: Fastest Growth 2018-21 than Any Other Period

The next chart shows the share of the increase in the value of noncash payments attributable to ACH transfers, card payments, and checks. Most of the growth—91 percent—was in ACH transfers, which increased by $27.7 trillion to $91.85 trillion.

Chart 2 of 4: Most Value Growth in ACH Transfers

Both ACH credit and ACH debit transfers grew more than 12 percent per year in value from 2018—faster value growth than card or check. The next chart shows the growth in the average values of ACH credit and debit transfers.

Chart 3 of 4: Steady Increase in Value of ACH Transfers

The number of noncash payments also increased from 2018 to 2021, up by 5.6 percent per year. Most of the number growth was in card payments. The increase in the number of card payments accounted for more than 84% of the growth in the number from 2018 to 2021.

Chart 4 of 4: Most Growth 2018-21 in Non-Prepaid Debit

If you, like me, enjoy playing around with Excel to make pictures of data, you can download the latest dataOff-site link. You can also review this downloadable infographic Adobe PDF file format.

Happy charting.

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