Blogs

The FedNow ® Service provides opportunities for U.S. financial institutions of a variety of sizes to build and deliver new instant payment services that can improve customer experience, loyalty, and satisfaction. Instant payments made over the FedNow Service settle between financial institutions in real time, and end users have access to funds immediately. Download the FedNow product sheet for details about the service and the benefits of instant payments. If your financial institution is interested in the FedNow Service but has questions about service features and functionality as you consider adoption, check out the following answers to commonly ...
According to Federal Reserve surveys, the majority of U.S. businesses sent or received a faster payment in 2022, the most recent year for which data is published. Offering instant payments via the FedNow ® Service can help your institution meet this demand, improve customer experience, and keep pace with the competition. Your organization can also reap other benefits from instant payments. For example, transactions settle between financial institutions in seconds, so there’s no buildup of interbank obligations. Plus, instant payments provide revenue growth and cost-saving opportunities that can benefit your financial institution’s bottom line. Instant ...
2024 kicks off with Data Privacy Week (January 21 – 27) and Identity Theft Awareness Week (January 29 – February 2) back-to-back. Fraudsters frequently use social engineering when perpetrating identity theft, data breaches, and other types of financial fraud. As SVP, Technology and Support for ePayResources, one of my areas of responsibility is data security. The following social engineering scenarios are not uncommon but perhaps are something you and your coworkers have not encountered yet. Awareness is key to not falling prey to the clever criminals! During the regular course of business, a team member receives a ...
Whether you've recently undergone the 2023 audit or are planning for next year's engagement, ePayAdvisors wants to ensure a seamless process by informing you of the essential documents and information needed, potentially saving you time and resources. Here are some things to keep in mind as you prepare for your organization's audit in 2024. Your audit reports for the last six years We will be verifying: • That your annual audits have been performed; • That you have been adhering to the 6-year record retention requirement for your audit reports; and • That you have remedied any findings from previous audits Samples of records of ...
February 9 is the last chance for nominations for the 2024 Leadership in Payments Award! Is there someone at your institution who has: Led the charge in obtaining senior management buy-in on an innovative payments solution? Championed the implementation of robust payments risk management practices? Expanded faster payments adoption among your customers or members? ePayResources would like to consider them for the annual Richard R. Oliver Leadership in Payments Award! But you must hurry – the nomination deadline is February 9, 2024! Nominees can be an individual, a team, or a whole department. You can even nominate yourself! Presented ...
As we step into 2024, ePayResources reflects on the significant milestones achieved in the payments industry. Nacha’s Accredited ACH Professional (AAP) and Accredited Payments Risk Professional (APRP) programs both hit milestone anniversaries in 2023, celebrating 30 years and five years, respectively. ePayResources and the other Payments Associations across the country have played a very important role from the beginning, from participating in Nacha’s Blue Ribbon Panels that developed these accreditation programs and that keep them up to date to providing ongoing exam preparation and continuing education. As a Direct Member of Nacha, ePayResources is a specially ...
Resolved to get a better handle on risk management in the new year? Start with Third-Party Senders! The Nacha Operating Rules (“ACH Rules”) require that ODFIs know the nature of their customers’ use of the ACH Network, whether as Originators, Third-Party Senders, or other types of intermediaries. One of the trickier aspects of being an ODFI is recognizing and understanding Third-Party Senders, the complexities and unique risks they present, and how to thoroughly mitigate those risks to protect your institution. Third-Party Senders act on behalf of the downstream Originator. If your customer is originating entries on behalf of and for the ultimate ...
Penny transactions, smoke testing, micro-entries, small value testing, and penny drop testing are a few of the names applied to the type of transaction used to test the validity of a bank account by depositing a small amount of money. The Nacha Operating Rules (ACH rules) define the term Micro-Entry to mean, A credit or debit Entry used by an Originator for the purpose of verifying a Receiver’s account or an individual’s access to an account. As account validation goes, the Micro-Entry process works! Challenges emerge when an ACH participant believes that account validation equals authorization. Specific to ACH transactions, every debit entry ...
Year after year, fraud continues to grow exponentially. Over 800,000 reports were received by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) in 2022, representing $10.2 billion in potential total loss - a significant jump from the $6.9 billion reported in 2021. Now that the holiday season is upon us, it’s prime time for fraudsters and scammers looking to take advantage of people’s generosity by exploiting the festive spirit for their own illicit financial gains. The FBI works to raise awareness of the types of scams that are common around the holidays and how you can protect yourself and your customers or members. Understanding the Types ...
Our 10 th annual Executive Payments Summit held at the Gaylord Texan on November 14 brought some of the industry’s most innovative minds together to celebrate how far we have come in the last 10 years, while looking ahead to the next decade of new and exciting opportunities with FedNow®, RTP®, AI, cryptocurrency, and other emerging payments technologies. As Alloy Lab’s Peter Davey, Conference Planning Committee Chair, observed, “We have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.” After a morning diving into use cases from instant payments adopters; the operators’ perspectives on our new payments rails; and fraud vectors and defenses, Robbie Roberson ...
If you’ve never attended one of ePayResources' Fraud Reduction Meetings , you are missing out on an incredible FREE members-only resource that has the potential to save your institution - and your customers or members – from significant exposure to payments fraud! Held virtually and in person in multiple locations each year, our Fraud Reduction Meetings are a convenient networking and learning opportunity attended by financial institutions of all sizes. While these meetings are only for ePayResources’ member financial institutions, we do invite local law enforcement to participate so you get the benefit of their fraud investigation insight. At the Fraud ...
Where do you stand on instant payment implementation compared to your peer institutions? The digitization that began during the pandemic to meet customers’ and members’ needs has since become the gold standard for financial services. With demand from consumers and businesses for faster payments firmly established, financial institutions recognize the need to act, but where do they stand on implementation planning? To find out, the Center for Payments, a collaboration of ten Payments Associations helping their members keep pace with the continued evolution of U.S. payment systems, launched a nationwide survey earlier this year to assess FIs’ readiness for ...
National Preparedness Month, observed every September, serves as a reminder of the importance of being ready for emergencies and disasters. While its primary focus lies in safeguarding lives and property, National Preparedness Month also holds significant relevance for the realm of payments. In an increasingly digital and interconnected world, ensuring the security and resilience of payment systems is paramount. Heightened Awareness National Preparedness Month provides a platform to raise awareness about potential payment-related risks and vulnerabilities. By educating individuals and organizations about the threats they may face, such as cyberattacks, ...
Bob Dylan nailed today’s faster payments environment with the title of his 1964 song, “The Times They Are A-Changin’.” With so many person-to-person (P2P) and credit push choices, how are consumers to decide what to use? Long gone are the days when accountholders drove to their local branch to make a deposit or withdraw. Today, speed is king. When looking at any new product or service one of the first considerations is accountholder experience. Gone (or at least going quickly) are the days of writing a birthday check, mailing it, and waiting for it to clear the account. Now a consumer has a multitude of options, to securely and quickly send funds to celebrate ...
For the 2023 hurricane season that runs June 1 – November 30, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is forecasting 12 to 17 named storms (winds 39+ mph); 5 to 9 hurricanes (winds 74+ mph); and 1 to 4 major hurricanes (winds 111+ mph). Is your institution adequately prepared to maintain business continuity in payments operations? This is the time of year when we remind our members that the Excused Delay provision of the Nacha Operating Rules, found on page OR 3, Section 1.5 , is intended to apply to processing delays caused by an interruption of communications or computer facilities that is out of the control of the financial institution, ...
With the long-awaited launch of FedNow just a few months away, you are hearing the terms faster payments, real-time payments, instant payments, and emerging payments more than ever before. But are we all on the same page as to what these terms mean? A quick search of industry resources will show you that the variances in usage can be confusing. Recognizing the value of standardizing the definitions we use in our education programs, ePayResources has adopted the definitions outlined below. Our foundation is the Faster Payments Council’s definition of faster payments and definitions from the Federal Reserve that we presented in our Faster Payments Town ...
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) is an international day of observance held every year on June 15. First established in 2006 by the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA) and the World Health Organization (WHO), and officially recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in 2011, WEAAD is an opportunity to raise awareness of elder abuse and exploitation and how to prevent and combat it. Elder abuse is a serious problem that affects millions of people around the world. It can take many forms, including physical, emotional, or financial; it can be committed by family, friends, caregivers, or strangers. Elder abuse can have ...
Where are you on your FedNow SM Service journey? With the FedNow Service launching in July , your financial institution might be wondering just how it can prepare to implement the service. It’s important to remember that each financial institution ’ s path to the FedNow Service will be unique. However, there are key decisions and activities many organizations take along their way. Six phases of the journey Here’s an overview of six common phases of the FedNow Service journey: • Learn – Get to know instant payments and the FedNow Service • Engage – Dig deeper into how instant payments can impact ...
Headed to Nacha's Smarter Faster Payments 2023 conference in Las Vegas? Come hang out with Team ePayResources at Booth 433, spin the ePayResources roulette prize wheel for fun giveaways, and get a chance to win one of two $100 gift cards or our grand prize – a Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0 (includes shipping to the winner)! Payments Consulting Expertise Are you ready to make key decisions on how your institution will use FedNow and RTP? Chat with our certified experts from ePayResourcesAdvsors to learn more about our consulting services to get your institution ready! Tuesday Night Out ePayResources is proud to be a Silver Sponsor! Join ...
Ask ePayResources! A member recently posed this question about the stop payment process: If a customer places a stop pay, and an item rejects to our stop pay list, is it appropriate that we return that as R08? Would there be a need to collect a WSUD with a stop payment to return the item as R07 when it rejects to the stop pay list? Both of the return reasons indicate the receiver doesn't accept the item. Are we putting too much work on our customers and front line by collecting a WSUD with the stop pay? What is standard practice? After our conversation, this was my response: A stop payment request is a proactive measure ...