Fight Fraud with Salal’s Positive Pay Service

In our Spring 2025 Business Services Quarterly Newsletter, we offered an overview of our Digital Banking Services, including the Positive Pay fraud prevention service. Now, we’re diving deeper into Positive Pay to show the full value of protecting your business by verifying the checks and ACH transactions you send from your account.

How Positive Pay Helps Prevent Fraud

Elizabeth Winters, our Treasury Management Sales and Operations Manager, previously explained that Positive Pay ensures that only authorized payments are processed, reducing the risk of financial losses due to fraudulent or altered transactions. We also noted that Positive Pay is preventative, helping impede fraud before a member experiences a loss, and that using the system proactively will provide the best results.

Custom Controls That Fit Your Business

Even with its broad fraud-prevention capabilities, Positive Pay is simple to use, and it also offers the flexibility for businesses to tailor their controls based on their specific operations. “For example, businesses can create an approved list of trusted vendors for ACH payments,” Elizabeth suggested. “Any ACH payments that match an approved company and fall under a set dollar threshold can process automatically, while payments outside of those parameters will generate an exception that requires review and approval. This allows businesses to automate routine payments while still maintaining oversight on higher-risk transactions.”

Adoption Is Growing

A sizable percentage of our members utilize Positive Pay. “We currently have 196 members enrolled in Positive Pay,” Elizabeth said. “This number reflects the enrolled member accounts but does not include additional accounts that may be accessed through cross-account permissions, so the actual number of accounts utilizing the service is even higher.”

Easy Setup with Personalized Support

If you’re not already using Positive Pay, our Treasury Management team can assist you with each step of the setup process. “Once a business decides to enroll in Positive Pay, we begin by having them sign the Positive Pay Service Addendum to authorize the service formally,” Elizabeth explained. “After we receive the signed agreement, a Treasury Management team member schedules an online training session with the business and any staff who will be managing Positive Pay.”

What to Expect During Training

The training takes about an hour. “During the training, we walk them through how to use the system, upload files, review exceptions, and respond to any questions,” Elizabeth said. “Once training is complete, the service is activated and ready for use.”

The Positive Pay trainings are presented by our Treasury and Cash Management Specialists, who will coordinate with you and your team. “We recommend that businesses assign someone, ahead of training, with the capacity to administer and check Positive Pay every business banking day,” said Alice Brown, a Salal Business Banking Specialist. “Then have that admin attend the Positive Pay training call we provide.”

During Positive Pay training, our Specialists share helpful hints and steps to success. “As I lead trainings, I’m frequently asked by members about what types of transactions will be available for them to review,” Alice said. “You’re set up with Positive Pay service that flags either your ACH debits, check debits, or both check and ACH debits.”

Understanding What Gets Flagged

The Positive Pay system utilizes specific parameters to monitor your transactions. “Positive Pay searches ACH or check debits that use your full account number,” Alice said. “Anything else sent through online banking, except Bill Pay checks, will not be flagged, and this includes debit card transactions.” (But please note, Salal uses a separate fraud monitoring system for all card transactions.)

Automate for Efficiency and Accuracy

Another vital training topic that our members appreciate, according to our Treasury and Cash Management Specialist, Magaska Christensen, is how to automate the use of Positive Pay. “When it comes to your approved ACH list, you can set parameters like maximum amount, frequency, and end date,” Magaska said. “I remind our members that, when it comes to these parameters, items will be returned if their payments do not match the parameters set exactly.”

Just 10 Minutes a Day

Our Specialists will demonstrate how making Positive Pay a priority can prevent a greater expenditure of time and stress on dealing with otherwise preventable fraud. “It should typically take about five to ten minutes out of your daily business process,” Alice advised. “For flexibility, add checks and approved ACH companies to the Approved Lists in Positive Pay in advance.”

Elizabeth also sometimes encounters the perception that Positive Pay will be too time-consuming to manage on a daily basis. “We understand that adding new tasks to a busy day can feel overwhelming,” she said, while echoing Alice regarding Positive Pay’s time commitment. “Typically, it takes only about five minutes in the morning to review and decide any exception items, and about five minutes at the end of the day to upload issued check files.”

Why Check Fraud Is Still a Threat

Using Positive Pay to monitor your checks is particularly important because check fraud remains one of the most common forms of payment fraud. “Even businesses with strong internal controls can become targets of altered or counterfeit checks,” Elizabeth warned. “Positive Pay adds an extra layer of security by allowing businesses to verify every check presented for payment against their own issued check files.”

Real Members, Real Success Stories

Engaging in a little extra scrutiny has yielded benefits for many of our members. “I’ve seen businesses use Positive Pay to catch and reject fraudulent checks,” Alice said, “using the feature that enables you to view the image of the check, where they saw that someone had altered the name of the payee.”

Magaska has also worked with Salal members who’ve caught check fraud using Positive Pay. “One of our members saw a check that was written for the wrong amount and name,” she said. “The member was alerted to the check being rejected and then looked closer at the details.”

That member reported the incident to Salal, and Magaska confirmed that the member should leave the check in a rejected status, which prevented the fraudulent payment from being completed. “The member was so happy because they didn’t lose any funds,” Magaska added.

A Smart Move for Any Business

When your account number is shared with vendors and payees, your risk immediately increases. “If your business writes a lot of checks or provides its bank account information to third-party services for payment,” Alice cautioned, “I highly recommend adding Positive Pay service to help verify those items debiting your account.”

More broadly, we encourage every Salal member to enroll in Positive Pay. “I often remind businesses that it’s not a matter of if they’ll experience fraud, it’s a matter of when,” Elizabeth said. “The small investment of time provides a significant level of protection against check fraud and unauthorized transactions, giving businesses greater peace of mind.”

Fight Fraud with Salal’s Positive Pay Service