OOLTEWAH, Tenn. (April 2) – Each year, the NACHA's Payments conference brings new ideas and innovative discoveries to the electronic payments market. This year's edition promises to push the boundaries with revolutionary technology that pushes ACH and wire fraud prevention to a new level.
ACH Alert, the 2012 winner of NACHA's Kevin O'Brien ACH Quality Award, is contributing to the buzz of Payments 2013 by rolling out its newest service: Bio-Wire.
"Financial institutions have traditionally had to shoulder the burden of fraud prevention, without the ability to see a return on investment," said Debbie Peace, CEO of ACH Alert. "Bio-Wire is the latest addition to our suite of tools that shift control of the pay/no pay decision to account holders, while also adding a positive revenue stream to financial institutions. It's simply a more efficient way to confirm the integrity of wire transfers."
Bio-Wire uses biometrics to confirm an account holder's identity based on physical traits, like voice recognition, before presenting the pay/no pay decision. And while it sounds like something more fitting for a summer blockbuster, Bio-Wire is actually a scalable service that provides the same high level of security for small credit unions and community banks as it does for large regional financial institutions.
As advanced as the thinking is behind Bio-Wire, the end result is actually quite simple and user-friendly. When customers sign up for the service, they receive an immediate alert any time a wire transaction is initiated to an account that is not on their pre-approved list. After calling the Bio-Wire toll-free number and repeating a random phrase, the voice recognition system can determine if there is a voice match. Then the customer can decide to allow or reject the wire transaction.
"This process saves financial institutions a lot of time by eliminating callbacks for wire transfers," explained Peace. "There's just no need for that with Bio-Wire. The account holder has control over accepting the wire transfer and preventing fraud. And that allows financial institutions to focus more on growing their own business."
Bio-Wire is also completely seamless, requiring no systems integration, but integration is and can be supported if desired.
"We know the challenges financial institutions face with regulations and requirements, and the manpower it takes to handle all of those functions. That means they can't spare more human capital to other backroom functions, like fraud prevention," said Peace. "That's why all of our services automate the detection of anomalies, securely engage a customer response and systematically manage exception processing."
Bio-Wire joins ACH Alert's suite of fraud prevention products and services that detected and helped thwart more than $100 million in ACH and wire fraud attempts in 2012 alone. Pro-Tech, C.O.P.S. and ACH Dispute Xpress have all played significant roles in preventing fraud and automating disputes for many bank account holders and credit union members.
"Advances in mobile and biometric technology have allowed us to take out-of-band, actionable alerts and move them to a new level through our fraud prevention services," said Peace. "Financial institutions that partner with ACH Alert can provide their customers with proven, real-time, self-service fraud prevention services that their competitors can't. It's not about bragging rights; it's about protecting their customers immediately, easily and cost-effectively."
Payments 2013 is being held in San Diego, Calif., April 21-24.