Blogs

Member Update: The Importance of Micro-Entries

By Elyssa Morgan posted 08-08-2023
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Phase 2 of Nacha’s Micro-Entry Rule became effective as of March 17, 2023, stating “ Originators of Micro-Entries will be required to use commercially reasonable fraud detection, including the monitoring of Micro-Entry forward and return volumes.” And therein lies the uncertainty. The statement “commercially reasonable fraud detection” has historically been a point of confusion for financial institutions (FIs), precisely because it has a degree of ambiguity and what may be “commercially reasonable” for one institution may not for another one. Calls to the NEACH Payments Hotline around Micro-Entries nearly always seek clarity on what constitutes ...
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Is it Love, or an Encounter You Will Regret?

By Rayleen Pirnie BCJ, AAP, CERP posted 04-20-2023
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He’s perfect. He likes everything you do; he’s funny, witty, and has a great job. He says all the right things. His photo made you go “oh, hi there!” While you just recently met online, you just know that he’s perfect in every way. The online messages, emails, texts, and calls get serious quickly; he professes his love, though you’ve never met in-person. You feel the same. He tells you that he just “knows” you are the one for him. He even sent you roses after you told him what a horrible day you had. Is this truly your dream-guy (or girl)? Maybe; unfortunately, there’s a greater chance that it’s a scammer sitting in a cybercafé in another country using ...
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Member Update: Mitigating Credit-Push and Account-to-Account Fraud

By Elyssa Morgan posted 04-18-2023
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We’ve all seen the news or have experienced it first-hand: Credit-push or account-to-account fraud is on the rise. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission just reported that more than $2.3 billion was lost by consumers in 2021 due to imposter scams, up 92% from 2020. Whether it’s a swindle where a fraudster convinces a customer or member to send them money under false pretenses (think romance scams) or a case of account takeover, spoofing, phishing, or email compromise, fraudsters have been working their way into credit payments. And these developments aren’t limited to one payment rail. They are being sent on card rails, as well as ACH and beyond. ...
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NEACH Education: New Management Track in 2023

By Sandy Ortins, AAP, APRP, NCP posted 03-13-2023
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NEACH is revamping its education offerings, culminating with the launch of NEACH University in 2024. This year, NEACH offers a sneak peek into its new Management Track, which addresses the unique challenges and opportunities payments managers face in a rapidly evolving industry. The track aims to help managers understand the strategic nature of payment functions and provide guidance on effectively managing payments-related operations and services. “We are reimagining the way we do education,” explained Mark Dixon, AAP, APRP, NCP, and Vice President of NEACH Education. “NEACH will be introducing new approaches to learning, including video elements, self-guided ...
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The Countdown Begins: Why You Must Implement Changes to Third-Party Sender Agreements by March

By Sandy Ortins, AAP, APRP, NCP posted 01-18-2023
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As we turn our eyes toward plans for 2023, before the end of the first quarter financial institutions (FIs) need to prepare for changes to their third-party sender agreements and relationships. Specifically, two new modifications to third-party sender roles and responsibilities--which technically went into effect as of September 30, 2022--will start being enforced as of March 31, 2023. Auditors and regulators will be looking closely at these compliance topics. “If you haven’t had your exams, reviews, or whatever-related to third-party risk management, they are going to be more intense,” shared Kevin Sasser, Director of Sales and Strategic Initiatives at ...
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NEACH 2023 Industry Update: Preparing for the Changes Ahead

By Sandy Ortins, AAP, APRP, NCP posted 01-11-2023
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As financial institutions look ahead to 2023, “change” is the name of the game. The FedNow SM Service is due to launch mid-year, leaving financial institutions just months to prepare. To that end, the Federal Reserve Banks recently published Operating Circular 8 , which sets the terms and conditions governing the FedNow SM Service alongside its “ FedNow Service Operating Procedures .” Also important to note is the Fed's new amendments to Regulation J, which will significantly impact financial institution operations. Nacha also announced the release of its “ New Risk Management Framework for the Era of Credit-Push Fraud ,” which provides a new ...
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TEAM SPOTLIGHT: Mary Mumper, AAP, CAMS, Director, Education

By Raven NEACH Marketing Maven posted 01-11-2022
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As NEACH’s Director of Education, Mary Mumper supports education initiatives, with a specific emphasis on enhancing NEACH’s payment innovation offerings. And as Lead Advisor for NEACH Payments Group (NPG), she also helps financial institutions, corporations, and vendors solve operational and regulatory challenges, manage risk, and drive financial and business improvement through NPG’s audit, risk management, and consulting services. Mary has a long history in payments; she’s worked in banking for 20 years, most recently as Vice President and Lead Auditor at BMTechnologies, formerly known as BankMobile. She has been certified by NACHA as an Accredited ACH Professional ...
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TEAM SPOTLIGHT: Joe Nompleggi, Records Administrator & IT Support

By Raven NEACH Marketing Maven posted 01-10-2022
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As NEACH’s Records Administrator and Information Technology Support Lead, Joe Nompleggi handles the integrity and performance of NEACH’s databases and makes sure company data is secure. He also evaluates new technologies to improve member experience and help NEACH leverage its technology and data in the most efficient, engaging way. Joe has worked in information technology, software development and database management for over 20 years; most recently, he served as Vice President of Product Development at Complete HealthCare Solutions, Inc. Although Joe is new to the banking and payments industry, he sees many parallels with healthcare in terms of regulatory, ...
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ADA compliance for financial institutions: Here’s something you can do

By Sean Carter AAP, APRP, NCP posted 02-25-2021
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Accessibility is about more than in-person parking spaces and wheelchair ramps at branch locations. With so much banking increasingly done online—especially given the COVID-19 pandemic over the past year—it’s crucial to ensure you’re accommodating users with disabilities who visit your digital platforms. Ninety-four percent of mobile banking customers use online banking platforms at least once a month, and digital banking stats predict the total number of online and mobile banking users will exceed 3.6 billion by 2024. As digital continues to grow and evolve, have you given much thought to how to make your materials accessible to those with vision concerns? ...
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Member Update: Responding to Letters of Indemnification (LOI) around Unemployment Fraud

By Elyssa Morgan posted 08-25-2020
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In July, we shared some tips on addressing unemployment fraud , and calls to our Payments Hotline show that the situation continues to evolve. Now ODFIs have begun sending requests for the return of these payments, accompanied by Letters of Indemnification (LOIs). RDFIs are looking for clarity on how to handle these requests and what is required under the Nacha Operating Rules. I wanted to take a moment to break down this issue and share insights to help RDFIs make the best business decision for their institutions. Under the Rules Let’s start with the specifics of the Rule requirements. As we mentioned last month, the ODFI warrants this transaction ...
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FRB Synthetic Fraud

By Ray Graber posted 08-19-2020
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In 2019, the Federal Reserve published two white papers as part of their Payments Fraud Insights series. The first, Synthetic Fraud in the U.S. Payment System covered basic traits. 1 The second white paper, Detecting Synthetic Identity Fraud in the U.S. Payment System , stressed how important it is for organizations to investigate deeper than the basic identifying data to uncover synthetic fraud. The third white paper picks up where their last one ended. It identifies the various efforts that organizations – both individually and collectively – can work with to mitigate synthetic identity fraud. Additionally, the third paper covers several ...
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Member Update: Three Tips for Addressing Unemployment Fraud

By Elyssa Morgan posted 07-30-2020
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On May 14, 2020 the Secret Service issued a warning about a "well-organized Nigerian fraud ring exploiting the COVID-19 crisis to commit large-scale fraud against state unemployment insurance programs." The Secret Service believes that this ring has obtained a substantial database of personally identifiable information (PII) from first responders, government personnel and school employees, and that all states are at risk. Following that announcement, calls began coming into our Payments Hotline ( 1-855-NEACH-QA ) on how to identify these transactions and how to handle returns. In fact, i t was the top question we received in May and continued trending ...
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The Federal Reserve’s Timely Release of the FraudClassifier Model

By Sandy Roland AAP, APRP, CAMS, NCP posted 07-06-2020
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The Federal Reserve announced recently the release of its FraudClassifier SM Model—a set of tools and materials designed to help classify and understand the magnitude of fraudulent activity across the payments industry. The Fed developed the FraudClassifier Model to help address the industry-wide challenge of inconsistent classifications for fraud involving ACH, wire, or check payments. The release of Fed’s FraudClassifier comes at a time when financial institutions are seeing an uptick in fraud due to the ripple effects of COVID-19. “We know the bad guys never miss the opportunity to take advantage of a bad situation,” Jim Cunha, secure payments ...
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NEACH’s Journey Towards Electronic Payments

By Sean Carter AAP, APRP, NCP posted 05-06-2020
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NEACH, as you know, has been promoting the use of the ACH Network for close to 50 years and expanded our offerings over the last ten years to all thing’s electronic payments. What you may not know about NEACH is that internally we have been very dependent on checks for both our A/R and A/P processes. I had a vision when I became President & CEO, and that vision was to change that process immediately. It did not change immediately, and that was due to a couple of errors in judgment. Most notably, our process and systems were literally written out of a check processing playbook. The other issue to our check process was our fraud controls. From the approval ...
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NEACH Continues Advocating for Its Members Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

By Sean Carter AAP, APRP, NCP posted 05-05-2020
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During this unprecedented time of widespread disruption and uncertainty brought about by COVID-19, NEACH’s mission and commitment to serve the needs of its members and to represent and advocate for you at the national level continues unhindered. Although our team is working from home, we are carrying on with business as usual, and that means our members remain our top priority. While much of the nation remains under a stay-at-home mandate, the work of representing and advocating for you continues. We partner with organizations like Nacha, the Fed, the Faster Payments Council, and others at the national level on behalf of our members. For example, ...
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You're Invited to Join our FREE Educational Webinar, The State of Cannabis Banking: 2019 in Review

By Stephanie Wandell posted 11-06-2019
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There’s been quite a bit of activity around cannabis banking this year. 2019 is shaping up to be a big year for cannabis banking. Green Check Verified’s Paul Dunford, Director of Customer Experience and Attorney, Sara Moppin from Preti Flaherty will be discussing their shared learnings around cannabis banking in New England - and what’s next for cannabis banking in 2020. This presentation will cover shared learnings on trends, updates, what 2019 has taught us so far about cannabis banking in New England - and what that might mean for cannabis banking in 2020. What You'll Learn: What data you can use to help you and your FI define what ...
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Synthetic Identity Fraud in the U.S. Payment System

By Ray Graber posted 09-26-2019
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According to the White Paper produced by the Federal Reserve near the end of 2018, the typical victims of ‘synthetic identity fraud’ are children, the elderly, or the homeless. We are all familiar with identity fraud in one way or another, but what is synthetic identity fraud? It seems that the U.S. is a better target due to the static nature of our identities because we rely on personally identifiable information (PII) like Social Security numbers. In the past this type of fraud was perpetrated face-to-face but has grown due to the Internet. McKinsey estimates that it is America’s fastest growing financial crime even though it is hard to track and often ...
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What’s Next in Payments?

By Sandy Ortins, AAP, APRP, NCP posted 09-03-2019
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What’s next in payments? It’s a question we should be continually asking ourselves in today’s rapidly evolving payments landscape. As new efforts unfold, it is critical that we stay on the cutting edge of new developments through continuing education, especially in the areas of financial technology and innovation, both of which are growing exponentially. At last year’s Innovating Payments Conference , we addressed a number of topics that fall into such categories as artificial intelligence, API, and blockchain, to name a few. A FinTech panel and open forum discussions also allowed for the free exchange of ideas as attendees explored the intersection ...
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Education: It’s an Ongoing Process

By Sandy Ortins, AAP, APRP, NCP posted 07-16-2019
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Education is critical to professional development. Personally, I know that when I earned my Accredited ACH Professional (AAP) qualification, I feel like it launched my career. Accreditation brings so much opportunity to advance knowledge and be the go-to person for your financial institution. That’s just one reason I’m so enthusiastic about others getting accredited and hopefully feeling similarly; but I’m supportive of all education efforts that advance knowledge of our industry. Because it’s changing every day, and it can seem difficult to stay on top of all of it. Programming notes Our education programs aim to cover each step in the life of ...
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