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Positive Pay

Fight check fraud with our Positive Pay program.

Positive Pay is offered at no charge by SBSU.

Businesses and banks are losing money because criminals have turned check fraud into an art form. They rob mail couriers and break into letter collection boxes for the envelopes that contain checks that they alter or copy to commit theft.

Many businesses are not aware they are victims of check fraud until a vendor contacts them to inquire about a delinquent account, although the check was mailed and paid weeks ago.

It is time to fight back with Positive Pay,

What Is Positive Pay?

  • Businesses provide their bank with a file of written/issued checks that include check numbers, amounts, and payees (whitelist).
  • As checks are presented, the bank compares them against the whitelist.
  • If a discrepancy is found the check is flagged as an “exception.”
  • Account owners use Positive Pay to ensure that only authorized checks are paid.
  • Unreviewed items are treated according to the chosen default action.

Bank Liability

Historically, businesses had up to 30 days after a bank statement date to review account activity and shift liability to the bank for unauthorized checks.

Banks, however, operate under a much tighter deadline, and generally have only one banking day to return most fraudulent checks to the bank of first deposit. This timing mismatch leaves both businesses and banks exposed to significant losses from increasingly sophisticated check fraud schemes.

Positive Pay brings customers into the process of identifying fraudulent checks before bank’s return deadline expires.

The deadline for returning business ACH entries is also very tight – generally one banking day after posting. Positive Pay can also be used to screen ACH items.

Reasonable Promptness – The Window is Shrinking

Your company may have received a letter from SBSU regarding Positive Pay that updates the definition of Reasonable Promptness to the following:

Before 3:00 p.m. Mountain Time on the same banking day the transaction (e.g., check) is posted to your account.

This reduced review period becomes effective on the earliest of the following:

  1. The date indicated in the letter from SBSU.
  2. The date outlined in account disclosures.
  3. The banking day following Positive Pay activation.

If any one company account becomes subject to this updated definition, all company accounts are subject to it, regardless of Positive Pay activation status.

Accounts with checking activity should be prioritized. To proceed, continue to the last page and select “Reserve Your Spot for Positive Pay Setup.” Fill out the form and schedule an appointment. An SBSU representative will call at your reserved time.

Deadlines

Once the system is activated, 10:00 AM is the time to remember.  It is deadline by which account owners should have logged into the Positive Pay system and reviewed exception items queued for review. An exception is a check or ACH item that does not match the whitelist.

While 10:00 AM is important, 3:00 PM is the absolute deadline for notifying us to return an unauthorized item on the day that it is posted to your account. The bank will always try to return fraudulent items even after 3:00 PM to reduce customer losses but may not be successful.

Schedule

Time Banking Day Event (All times listed in Mountain Time)
10:00 AM Daily Decision Deadline: Deadline by which customer must notify Bank of its Return Decision for Exception Items on the same banking day that Bank has Exception Item(s). Bank will rely upon Company’s Disposition of Unreviewed Items selection if Company fails to provide Decisions by this time.
3:00 PM Reasonable Promptness Deadline at which Customer Accepts Liability: The time at which Customer accepts all liability for items paid to Customer’s account(s) covered by this Agreement on the banking day the item posts to the account(s).
5:00 PM Data Submission Deadline: Deadline for Customer to submit Check Data or ACH whitelisting via the specified Online channel to screen pending items and reduce next-day exception items. Files or updates received by the Bank after 5:00 PM will be processed on the next banking day. Customer may send more than one file per day.
Banking Day A day the bank is open to the public for carrying on substantially all Banking (other than Saturday, Sunday, or federal holidays).

A check that has been rejected and returned at 10:00 AM cannot be un-rejected and paid. It must be deposited again after it is received by the depositor.

Default Action

SBSU needs to know what to do with checks/items if the account owner fails to log in to review exception items by 10:00 AM. A default action for unreviewed exceptions will be chosen during Positive Pay setup.

SBSU recommends selecting “Pay Unreviewed items”.  This is because fraudulent items are generally few in comparison to legitimate items.

The default may be changed to “Return Unreviewed Items” during setup or afterwards, at the account owner’s discretion.

Positive Pay for ACH may also be activated during setup, although the initial focus will be upon checks.

The entire Positive Pay Agreement is found here. It contains the Terms and Conditions that govern the program.

Steps to Participate in Positive Pay

  • Click the link below
  • Pick an available time/date
  •  Input the requested information
  • Click Book to reserve your spot (onboarding will be conducted via phone)

Reserve your Spot for Positive Pay Setup

Before the Appointment

  • Prepare a list of authorized company users
  • Include each user’s (1) Name, (2) Phone, and (3) Email

Questions about Positive Pay?

Email: online@sbsu.com (include Positive Pay in the Subject line)

Call: (435)865-2394