Automate Account Validations Worldwide

• Non-compliance (to US laws)
  
  The first drawback to not validating your accounts is that it may put your business in an illegal situation. The new Nacha account validation requirement has been enforced since 2022; not respecting it puts you at risk of a corporate fine in case of an audit.
  
  Depending on your company and its industry, you might also be infringing the KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) regulations.
  
  The SOX law that targets publicly traded companies also requires financial transparency and internal control measures, both of which are helped with account validation.
  
  
• Increased risks of errors
  
  Not validating your third parties’ accounts leaves room for mistakes. Anyone from your third party’s team or yours could enter the wrong banking details (account number, routing number, amount to wire, etc) and transfer money somewhere else – or not at all, which could damage your supplier relationship.
  
  In most cases with wire transfers, it’s nearly impossible to get the funds back once they’ve been sent. That’s especially true in the case of direct debit or transfers in the SEPA zone. Which is why wire transfer scams are on the rise.
  
  
• More risks of fraud
  
  Foregoing account validation exposes your business to unnecessary – but very real – fraud risks. Indeed, scammers impersonating others (spoofing) are on the rise. All transactions are at risk: ACH transfers, wire transfers, instantaneous payments, etc.
  
  For example, fraudsters routinely send false invoices to corporations or even hack into a supplier’s network to change their bank account details on the legitimate invoice sent. This is called vendor fraud.
  
  Fraudsters also commit phishing or spear-phishing attacks, targeting individuals within the company and luring them into revealing sensitive information. Once they get their hands on their passwords, it’s easy to access your company’s network and change data here and there. Which is why you should always use multi-factor authentication.
  
  CEO fraud is also a common trick used, where scammers impersonate your CEO, CFO, or another executive from your organization and contact an employee via email, asking for a money transfer to be done to a specific account. When it comes to fraud, identity theft is surprisingly common and effective. And without an appropriate response like account validation, you open the door for scammers to commit fraud.

• Comply with regulations
  
  Regulatory authorities are here for a reason. Nacha account validation requirements ensure that you have the correct bank details to charge your clients for example. They also provide resources and documentation for doing account validation the correct way.
  
  The same goes for the KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) frameworks, which apply to certain high-risk industries like insurance.
  
  Regulatory compliance makes sure standards are met across industries.
  
  Abiding by them means protecting your business from a potential security breach, money laundering, or terrorism funding. It also protects your consumers’ sensitive information, which in turn leads to a more trusting relationship between you.
  
  
• Standardize your processes
  
  Standardizing your account validation is key for consistency across your company. Account validation is a business process like any other – it needs to be streamlined in order to be efficient. The way you go about this exactly depends on your organization.
  
  Have a look at where you’re at now, and think about how you could make your actual process more effective. You might need to involve more people in it, simplify it, officialize one process for the whole company, communicate more regularly, and so on.
  
  One thing is sure, however: you need to systematically check the financial information of your third parties – especially for overseas suppliers! Checking a merchant when you create its’ record in your database is a first step but it’s not enough: you need to ensure controls are done systematically during the supplier lifecycle.
  
  That’s why it’s important that account validation be part of your regular internal controls, and as such is communicated consistently in your company. It all leads to increased cybersecurity, as well as leaves an audit trail in case of external control.
  
  
• Do your due diligence
  
  Account validation is about more than meeting the standards of regulatory bodies. At its heart, it’s about ensuring that your company isn’t sending funds to scammers, hackers, terrorists, or any malicious person. It’s an essential addition to your current anti-fraud measures.
  
  Strong account validation needs to be an integral part of your customer due diligence process. This means going beyond standard background checks and incorporating robust business process controls. You need to be sure you won’t be defrauded and fund illegal activities unknowingly.
  
  Enhanced due diligence is possible thanks to Trustpair, which carries out systematic and automated checks. Our vendor data management system means you can trust that your account validation covers all the authentication details that you might otherwise miss with manual verification.

• Anti-fraud software increases your efficiency
  
  Instead of having to manually check each of your third parties’ information – which is error-prone and lengthy – you can use an automated solution to simplify your process. Where manual checks can take up to 30 minutes for one supplier, with an anti-fraud software like Trustpair, it takes about 2 minutes – and the process is more thorough.And with suppliers scattered around the globe and an increasing number of them, it’s close to impossible to actually check all your merchant information manually.
• It increases the overall securityUsing an automated solution for your account validation proactively eliminates fraud, by checking each and every transaction.

  Indeed, it checks all payments before they are executed. Any payment programmed for a supplier that hasn’t been checked doesn’t go through. With software like Trustpair, it happens automatically and in real-time.
  
  When it comes to identity verification, automated software usually offers multi-factor authentication for an additional layer of security. It means you need a minimum of a password and a one-time password sent through a device or a biometric authentication (like facial recognition or a fingerprint) before logging in.

  On top of that, automated solutions like Trustpair respect high-security standards to protect their customers’ financial details. Our account validation service includes connection through a secure API or native connectors.

• It gives you complete control over your P2P processFraud detection software gives you a complete overview of your payment process – which is key for effective risk monitoring. Most platforms integrate with other systems like your payment processor and ERPs like SAP or Oracle to guarantee complete fraud protection. Integration methods include API or native connectors.

  It also makes your data protection easier to navigate with a user-friendly interface. Trustpair for instance offers a dashboard with your key metrics.

  Your merchant onboarding as well as your customer onboarding have just become more secure! Every financial information addition or status change goes through our rigorous check. If there is any scam attempt, it’s detected early on, and you can address it directly from your dashboard and block any illegal transaction.

  Using a solution like Trustpair means having a complete overview of your procure-to-pay process while improving your efficiency. Partners and customers alike can use your services with peace of mind. Contact us for more information!

On top of being an Account Validation Service (or AVS), Trustpair will help you address risk management topics efficiently and globally.

Our platform has been designed with the end consumer in mind and offers intuitive ergonomics as well as comprehensive dashboards, workflows, and task centers.

The dashboards will help you balance your decisions when it comes to risky situations, by giving you a complete overview of merchant information and risk level

Vendor evaluations are delivered almost instantaneously and can be triggered at any moment of the supplier lifecycle – not only when a new vendor is created. They are based on external banking data sources that provide all needed information – routing number, company status, account number, and so on.

On top of that, we send live warnings as an additional response to any unusual or suspicious transaction – including an unusual amount or date – and block it preventively.

Routing numbers enable you to identify banks before transfers or on a check. Validating the ACH routing number is important before executing an ACH transfer to make sure you’re sending funds to the right beneficiary, avoiding mistakes or even fraud. There are different methods to validate routing numbers like online tools or direct bank lists.

However, validating routing numbers isn’t enough to wipe out fraud. Even if the routing number is valid, it doesn’t mean the rest of the banking information is correct. Fraudsters could have opened an account in the same bank as the actual beneficiary to commit fraud under the radar. It’s important to check more information like the company’s adress, country, etc.