This Financial Insights study examines the current and future applications of the Automated Clearing House (ACH), analyzes the market factors that underlie its growth, and provides a detailed forecast of transactions and dollar volume for 2006?2010. The ACH funds transfer system has been transformed in recent years by the conversion of paper checks into electronic transactions, but its future is less certain.

According to Aaron McPherson, research director for Payments at Financial Insights, "Although check conversion is unquestionably the growth opportunity of the present, we believe that business-to-business payments ultimately represent the greatest opportunity for banks and technology vendors because that is where the most value can be added by a purely electronic system."