Check fraud prevention you can feel positive about

As a business owner or CEO, you strive to eliminate all types of risk. And one of the most common forms of fraud within organizations continues to be check fraud.

Through advanced technology and basic resourcefulness, criminals are finding it increasingly easy to alter, forge, counterfeit, or otherwise manipulate checks in order to defraud consumers, and businesses are a favorite target. As businesses find quicker ways to optimize the payment process through automation, these fraudulent payments can easily slip through undetected. It’s difficult to stay on top of, and we feel your pain.

One safeguard against this problem is Positive Pay, an automated service that reduces the risk of financial loss due to fraudulent activities on your accounts, or even due to payment error. With Positive Pay, you’re able to stop problems before they start.

Positive Pay is a simple but effective way to prevent check fraud. It systematically compares your issued checks against those presented for daily payment and reports any discrepancies to you. This “extra set of eyes” increases the likelihood of preventing altered or fraudulent checks by looking for duplicate check numbers or amounts, altered amounts or payees, and unreadable MICR lines. It also monitors ACH entries and allows you to establish rules for the companies you do business with.

Each day, you’ll be apprised of any issues that can lead to fraud losses or disruption of payments to your vendors or customers and will have the enhanced ability to identify and return fraudulent items, including suspect payees. Ultimately, the decision as to whether or not to accept a check is always your call.

You’ll designate people within your organization to review daily payment exceptions. These individuals review and determine if the flagged payment is to be paid or returned. Uploading payment information and monitoring exceptions all takes place online and can be done from virtually anywhere you have internet access — and the beauty is that Positive Pay never forgets to make this review or goes on vacation.

Positive Pay empowers you to proactively protect your business’s cash flow by staying a step ahead of criminals. It’s a smart form of business banking because it simplifies the check issuing process, saves on labor costs, and greatly reduces your margin of error. That being said, only you know if Positive Pay is the right fraud protection service for your business, so it’s worth having a conversation with a Treasury Management Representative for further consideration.

Learn more by contacting Treasury Management or watching a demo.