It provides electronic financial transactions services to the military banking and defense credit union sector.

[1] It connects approximately 346 banks and credit unions with over 800,000 ATMs and 2.3 million point-of-sale locations that are often in or near military bases both in the United States and overseas.

[4] The Armed Forces Financial Network was founded in 1985 at the request of the United States Army to support the "Surepay" direct deposit initiative.

[5] The AFFN's role in the Surepay initiative was to be one way U.S. military personnel could gain access to their money.

In 2017 the Armed Forces Financial Network launched a chip and pin travel card.