Customers Advised To Avoid Branch Gridlock

According to the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA), financial institutions report as high as a 50% increase in daily check volume when a "lost Friday" occurs. A "lost Friday" happens three or four times a year when weekly, alternate-week, monthly, and twice-monthly paychecks are all given out at the same time.

Obviously, when that happens (as happened this past July 1st at the beginning of the July 4th weekend...need we tell anyone who worked it?) there are bound to be long lines, long waits, and, as NACHA so vividly pictures it-gridlock in the financial institution office.

In 1991 when NACHA, using Gavin McLeod as a spokesman, started advertising direct deposit of payroll on TV and radio, 20% of paycheck recipients signed up. In 1992 that number increased to 25%. The latest figures available from 1993 show that 35% of workers are now on direct deposit.

NACHA says that the advantage for the paycheck issuing company is a savings of $1.25 a transaction each payday.

Even More Benefits
In addition, NACHA is doing a marketing push on the advantages of also direct depositing pension payments, annuities, and other consumer payments, such as expense reimbursements.

This would mean not only an advantage to the originator of the payment, but also to the consumer, who, of course, has the convenience of immediate access through an ATM or point of sale locations, and the avoidance of those gridlocks.

Copyright © 1994 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 4, No. 12, 7/94