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Move security issues toward the top of your priority list

From paper checks to electronic communications, businesses are vulnerable to fraud, theft and other malicious practices that put funds at risk. First American Bank offers a comprehensive suite of Positive Pay products intended to keep your accounts safe, maximizing your ability to focus on running your business while providing peace of mind.

Positive Pay from First American Bank is a set of solutions for the early detection of unauthorized check payments and ACH transactions. Positive Pay allows you to manage lists of acceptable payment items, review images of items presented for payment, and make payment or return decisions online. Our suite of options allows you to choose the level of protection that best meets your needs:

  • Positive Pay helps prevent check fraud. Simply send us a check file every time you issue checks; or manually enter your checks into the system. We will match this file against checks presented for payment to identify discrepancies or suspect checks. View front and back images of these checks to make payment/return decisions online.
  • Positive Pay with Payee Match adds another level of security by verifying payee names. Send us the payee information in your check issue file and we will also verify payee names to detect any discrepancies.  View front and back images of these checks to make payment/return decisions online.
  • Reverse Positive Pay is an alternative to Positive Pay for companies that are unable or elect not to send check issue information to the bank. View online images of checks from the previous business day and determine if any should be returned.
  • ACH Positive Pay helps prevent unauthorized electronic transactions and manage your inventory of acceptable transactions. It offers flexibility for using your own ACH filters to accept or reject items to manage risk more accurately. Add, edit, or delete filters at any time based on your needs.

Payment Security Awareness

  • Never accept ANY change in payment or direct deposit instructions via email or fax!
  • FTC.gov is a great resource on the latest scams and prevention information.
  • Always use dual control when processing payment entries: One individual to initiate the entry and a second individual to approve the entry.
  • Monitor the audit reports available in Ca$hTrac to identify any unauthorized Wire Payments or ACH Payments activity.
  • Reconcile your accounts daily to identify any unauthorized activity.
  • Educate employees not to give out credentials. Consider blocking access to file-sharing, social media and personal email sites unless they are for business activities.
  • The best way to insulate your business against fraudulent online business transactions is to use a dedicated PC that is not used for other online activity. Another option is to restrict personal web browsing, emailing and social networking on any computer used for online banking activities.
  • If you do not recognize the sender of an email or have any doubts about the authenticity of an email, do not respond and delete it immediately.
  • Never click on a URL within an email. Instead, enter the URL yourself. Do not open or click on attachments, especially if they claim an urgent problem or the attached file ends in “.exe”.
  • For additional information, see Security Best Practices and Security Awareness – Overview.
  • Segregate duties so that one individual doesn’t have the ability to both initiate and record check activity. A party independent of your check-writing and account-reconcilement process should perform periodic audits.
  • Keep authorizations up-to-date. Notify the bank immediately to have departing employees removed from all authorizations. Make sure the removal of access to all services is part of your employee exit process.
  • Report any fraudulent or unauthorized entries immediately. You can use Ca$hTrac to monitor account balances 24/7.
  • To assist in monitoring your account activity, set up Account Alerts in Ca$hTrac.
First American Bank is a full-service bank with locations in Illinois, Wisconsin and Florida.