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ACH - bigger volume jumps are in store for BOC e-checks 4/9 DTN It grew 267% in just a quarter, yet the new BOC electronic-check code still isn’t getting any respect. NACHA reports that the ACH handled 3.08m BOC transactions in 2007’s IVQ compared with 840,743 in IIIQ. BOC allows merchants to convert checks to electronic files in the back offices of their stores or by sending them to processor sites. As such, BOC, which went live on 3/16/07, has some advantages over POP, an earlier retail e-check code that has more stringent customer-notification requirements & needs hardware out in the store lanes. Many observers had expected that national retailers would have made some splashy BOC announcements by now, but few have. ‘It seems like a lot of people are expressing disappointment in those IVQ numbers,’ says Dan Miner, NACHA. ‘People had asked for forecasts, we weren’t able to give any.’ The issue, according to Miner, was that retrofitting retail payment systems is a complicated task, & the banks & processors that merchants work with didn’t have everything ready last year even though the code was live. ‘We weren’t really surprised about the numbers in 2007.’ Miner is certain that’s about to change, especially with big retailers such as Target, Home Depot & Kohls having committed to BOC. ‘I do still expect the volume growth will be significant in 2008, but especially in 2009 & 2010.’ POP continues to barrel along on a growth spurt that started in IIQ 2006. POP’s 2007 volume was 462.7m transactions, up 71.8% from 269.4m in 2006—the highest growth rate of 13 ACH payment codes. POP’s growth rate in 2006 was 60.3%. Walmart is POP’s biggest proponent, with 3,000 US stores using it. But other retailers are implementing POP, including AutoZone. The biggest of the e-check options remains ARC, for accounts receivable conversion, or conversion of checks sent to lockboxes. ARC volume grew 24.2% in 2007 to 2.67b transactions from 2.15b in 2006. WEB, for Internet-based check conversions, grew 27.2% to 1.74b transactions compared with 1.37b in 2006. WEB is primarily for bill payments over the Internet, with credit card issuers being the biggest group of payment receivers. Less than 3% of WEB’s volume is for one-time payments to Internet retailers, according to Mike Herd, NACHA. NACHA is addressing Internet retail payments with its upcoming Secure Vault Payments project. TEL, the e-check code for telephone-based check conversions, recorded 334.1m transactions last year, up 13.9% from 293.3m in 2006. Total ACH network volume last year was 14b transactions, up 13.4% from 12.3b in 2006. The figures do not include on-us volumes.