Accel (formerly known as the ACCEL/Exchange Network) is a North American

interbank network An interbank network, also known as an ATM consortium or ATM network, is a computer network that enables ATM cards issued by a financial institution that is a member of the network to be used to perform ATM transactions through ATMs that belo ...

owned by

Fiserv Fiserv, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational corporation, multinational financial technology company headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Fiserv provides financial technology and services to clients across the financial services sector, incl ...

. It connects over 412,000

automatic teller machine An automated teller machine (ATM) is an electronic telecommunications device that enables customers of financial institutions to perform financial transactions, such as cash withdrawals, deposits, funds transfers, balance inquiries or account ...

s (ATMs) in all 50 states in the United States. The network also has a small number of ATMs in certain U.S.

Air Force Base An airbase (stylised air base in American English), sometimes referred to as a military airbase, military airfield, military airport, air station, naval air station, air force station, or air force base, is an aerodrome or airport used as a mi ...

s around the world, and over 3.3 million

electronic funds transfer Electronic funds transfer (EFT) is the transfer of money from one bank account to another, either within a single financial institution or across multiple institutions, via computer-based systems. The funds transfer process generally consists ...

at point-of-sale locations.

History

*1985: Accel was founded, by major banks in the Northwest of the United States, primarily as an

network. *1991: Accel began a business partnership with the Exchange network creating ACCEL/Exchange. *In the 1990s most banks in the Pacific Northwest were part of this network including

Seafirst Bank Seafirst Corporation was an American bank holding company based in Seattle, Washington. Its banking subsidiary, Seafirst Bank, was the largest bank in Washington, with 235 branches and 497 ATMs across the state. Formed in 1929 via the merger ...

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America) (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in ...

US Bank U.S. Bancorp (stylized as us bancorp) is an American multinational financial services firm headquartered in Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Minnesota and incorporated in Delaware. It is the List of largest banks in the United States, 5th-largest ban ...

, First Interstate Bank, Puget Sound Bank, Rainier Bank/

Security Pacific Security Pacific National Bank (SPNB) was a large U.S. bank headquartered in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California. It was acquired by Bank of America in 1992. History On September 1, 1868, Hellman, Temple and Co. opened their first bank b ...

Key Bank KeyBank is an American regional bank headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, and the 27th largest bank in the United States. Organized under the publicly traded KeyCorp, KeyBank was formed from the 1994 merger of the Cleveland-based Society Corpora ...

and West One Bank. Since then, bank mergers caused some banks to leave the Accel/Exchange network. Now only Key Bank is part of Accel/Exchange when it comes to major banks in the Northwest. *2013: In April, the company streamlined the name from "ACCEL/Exchange" to simply "Accel," a result of a repositioning of the debit payment network, and a reflection of its current "ability to accelerate funds transfers across retail, biller and social person-to-person payments.

The Exchange Network

Accel's Canadian counterpart, known as THE EXCHANGE Network (and stylized as THE EXCHANGE), is operated by FICANEX, a

limited partnership A limited partnership (LP) is a type of partnership with general partners, who have a right to manage the business, and limited partners, who have no right to manage the business but have only limited liability for its debts. Limited partnership ...

of several Canadian banks and credit unions which licenses "THE EXCHANGE" branding and intellectual property from Fiserv. THE EXCHANGE Network includes nearly 3,300 ATMs serving customers of roughly 140 financial institutions—primarily credit unions and online banks but also including smaller bank such as the

National Bank of Canada The National Bank of Canada () is the sixth largest commercial bank in Canada. It is headquartered in Montreal, and has branches in most Canadian provinces and 2.4 million personal clients. National Bank is the largest bank in Quebec, and the se ...

. THE EXCHANGE Network is not used for debit payment processing in Canada, as most Canadian debit cards use the

Interac Interac is a Canadian interbank network that links financial institutions and other enterprises for the purpose of exchanging electronic financial transactions. Interac serves as the Canadian debit card system and the predominant funds transf ...

network for

EFTPOS Electronic funds transfer at point of sale, abbreviated as EFTPOS (), is a type of payment transaction in which electronic funds transfers (EFT) are processed at a point of sale (POS) system or payment terminal usually via payment methods such as ...

debit transaction, but most EXCHANGE debit cards can be used for debit purchases through the Accel network in the United States.

References

External links

Accel (United States)The Exchange Network (Canada)
Interbank networks {{Canada-company-stub