Direct deposit

A direct deposit (or direct credit), in banking, is a deposit of money by a payer directly into a payee's bank account. Direct deposits are most commonly made by businesses in the payment of salaries and wages and for the payment of suppliers' accounts, but the facility can be used for payments for any purpose, such as payment of bills, taxes, and other government charges.

When making a direct deposit by means of electronic funds transfer, the payer also normally enters reference information to make it easy for the payee to recognise who made the deposit and which account to credit. The reference may be an account number, an invoice number, the payer's name, or some other meaningful identification.^[1]

The direct deposit facility is often better known by country-specific payment systems used to action these payments such as the following:

• Giro in most of Europe
• ACH Network (ACH) in the United States
• Direct entry in Australia