How to Stay Ahead of Digital Payments Fraud with Socure Account Intelligence

The advent of online payment processing has revolutionized transaction convenience and speed, but it has also created ample opportunities for fraudulent activities.

Online payment fraud is expected to exceed $343 billion in merchant losses, globally, between 2023 and 2027, per Juniper Research. For perspective, this is higher than the GDP of 83% of all countries.

According to McKinsey, over 82% of all US consumers have used some form of online payment, open banking, or peer-to-peer payment option such as Zelle, Venmo, and Cash App. So it’s no surprise that Business Insider expects paper checks to be extinct by 2026, making digital payments the default.

Now more than ever, financial institutions must accurately assess the trustworthiness of bank accounts and determine payment return risk before payments are made, without impacting the consumer experience.

Establishing Trust Without Customer Friction

Late last year, Socure announced its entrance into the payments risk space with the launch of Socure Account Intelligence (SAI). This cutting-edge solution enables our customers to instantly verify domestic bank account status and ownership, prior to online ACH payment transactions or electronic funds disbursements, all with minimal customer inputs. 

Other bank account validation solutions require sharing of sensitive consumer-permissioned data, such as bank account usernames and passwords, or rely on multi-day micro-deposit processes. According to MX, “the onboarding drop-off rate for businesses using the micro-deposit process is as high as 49% while the onboarding drop-off rate for businesses using instant account verification is as low as 1%.”. 

With only the consumer or business name, bank account, and routing numbers, SAI establishes, in real-time, that the account is open, and that the individual is authorized to transact on the account. This enables payment senders and receivers to reduce payment losses while promoting operational efficiency.

Not Your Average Account Validation Solution

Socure Account Intelligence is unique for three key reasons:

1. Firstly, it is integrated into Socure’s ID+ platform, providing access to the company’s full fraud solution suite through a single API integration. This makes it easy for customers to benefit from the full range of Socure’s services, without having to integrate multiple systems. 
2. Secondly, the results are delivered in real-time, eliminating the wait time associated with competing micro-deposit solutions and ensuring a frictionless customer experience. 
3. Thirdly, SAI processes with minimal data inputs, as opposed to competing credentialing solutions, which require the disclosure of sensitive account login credentials.

Additionally, SAI was designed specifically to help organizations adhere to Nacha’s (the ACH governing body) new WEB Debit rule, which requires originators to validate that an account is open and accepts ACH entries prior to payment execution. SAI not only supports this requirement, but it goes a step further to confirm that the named consumer or business is the rightful owner of the bank account. As a result, Socure has been recognized as a leading vendor by Nacha, who named the company as an official Preferred Partner.

Unlocking the Value of Operational Efficiency

SAI is a valuable addition to any industry in which ACH payments are being sent or received, such as bank account funding, disbursement of government benefits, bill payments, insurance payouts, merchant and peer-to-peer payments. Thanks to SAI’s ability to establish bank account trust and determine payment return risk, businesses can expedite disbursements, guard against payment fraud, and comply with ACH regulatory requirements, all while delivering a seamless customer experience.

Speak with an expert now to discuss how SAI can help you reduce operational costs, returned payments, and customer drop-off today.