Fifth Third Bancorp has agreed to use a new corporate check security application from CheckFree Corp.
The Atlanta vendor announced the deal and unveiled Positive Pay Accelerator on Monday at the Payments 2006 automated clearing house conference in San Diego.
Fifth Third, of Cincinnati, expects to start offering Positive Pay Accelerator to business customers by yearend, said Bert Harkins, a vice president for global strategic marketing with CheckFree’s software division.
He said it typically takes about two days for businesses to decide whether to pay checks that are not on their positive-pay checklists. Many of his customers have said they “want to do it on the same day,” he said.
Companies use positive pay to reduce fraud by providing their banks with a list of checks they have issued. Any checks not on this list must be approved by the company. Mr. Harkins said the majority of such exception items are legitimate.
He said Positive Pay Accelerator shortens the approval process by making sure corporate treasurers receive exception items faster. “It moves them to the top of the to-do list.”
He said the product can improve fraud prevention by presenting the exception items to corporate customers sooner, and can increase revenue for banks, because they can charge a premium for the faster service. “This hits two important hot-buttons for banks.”
