"Positive Pay" for ACH? Complicated, Expensive... And Not Here Yet.

Mary Schaeffer over at CPA insider reports that electronic fraud covers both automatic clearinghouse (ACH) credits and debits. In fact, it's the debits that can cause the problem. She says that with the right information, it's very easy to commit electronic payment fraud. And getting that requisite information isn't difficult. "Luckily, for now, crooks have not caught on and they still focus primarily on check fraud. This is not to say that electronic payment fraud doesn't occur today. It most definitely does -- just not as frequently as check fraud," Ms Schaeffer said. Many smaller businesses don't take the appropriate steps to protect their bank accounts because they don't make electronic payments. This is a big mistake. Unfortunately, a robust "positive-pay" product for the ACH environment is not universally available today. Positive Pay is expensive, and further complicated because some banks match the identities of those attempting to debit an account with those on the list provided by the company, and customers have to review exceptions manually before payment.