3.8 million same-day ACH transactions took place last month for a grand total of $4.98 billion transacted, according to data released today by NACHA—the National Automated Clearing House Association, otherwise known as the governing body behind the ACH Network.

These numbers are the result of the first month in which same-day ACH transfers were implemented in its first phase, which began on September 23. The first phase involved ACH credit settlements. This is an update to what one might call the “traditional” ACH network, which typically settled transactions overnight.

“I think the largest benefit is that it changes the way payment providers view ACH,” says Jason Oxman, CEO of the D.C. based Electronic Transactions Association. “The availability of same-day ACH opens up a whole host of potential use cases.”

Of course, one should keep in mind that it’s still early days (we just passed the first 30, in fact) so the adoption of these use cases will come a bit later.

Currently same-day ACH is credit only, not debit, which might account for why some companies are still hesitant to do the origination side of things, according to Oxman–who also noted that this recent data provides a good look at the demand for the product.

“NACHA deserves a lot of credit and applause,” says Oxman. “It’s a good opportunity for the industry to sit back and applaud [NACHA’s efforts].”

The greatest volume of transactions that took place during this first month were “direct deposit” transactions—this is used for things like pension payments, emergency payroll, etc; and counted for $1.6 billion of the total $4.98 billion transacted; or just about 49% of the total transaction volume, if not its value. These types of ACH credit transactions accounted for 70% of traditional ACH credit volume, according to NACHA.

Unsurprisingly, the next highest use was business-to-business payments; which took the next 36% of the transaction volume (these types of payments accounted for 25% of traditional ACH credit volume)—totaling $2.8 billion in payments for the month of October.

Interestingly, P2P payments also saw a leap this month; jumping from 1% of overall ACH credit volume to 13% of same-day ACH, which might be a factor in why the average transaction amount (across all types of credit) has dropped from its previous figure of about $3,100 to its current figure of about $1,300.

“P2P transactions represented about $500 million [in payments],” says NACHA President and CEO Janet Estep. “This speaks very well to supporting those consumers who want more control.”

NACHA also reported a small rise in the volume of those consumers utilizing ACH for bill payments, which has hovered at around 2% of transaction volume for decades.

These are significant results considering that the shift to same-day ACH is only in its first phase; NACHA has plans to continue the momentum by enabling same-day ACH debit payments, which it should do on September 15^th of next year, according to the company.

According to Estep, NACHA will continue to report ACH data, but will do so on a quarterly basis moving forward.