LIVONIA, Mich.--As new ACH fraud-monitoring rules begin rolling out and credit-push fraud continues to climb, financial institutions are being warned that account validation can no longer be treated as a routine compliance step, but instead must become a core fraud-prevention tool across ACH, wires, cards and other digital payment channels.
PaymentsJournal, citing a recent PaymentsJournal webinar featuring experts from Nacha and Javelin Strategy & Research, said the shift is forcing banks and credit unions to rethink how they verify account information before funds are sent.
PaymentsJournal reported Nacha plans to roll out new monitoring rules this year designed to reduce successful ACH fraud attempts and improve recovery of funds after fraud occurs, adding new urgency for financial institutions already grappling with rising payment risk.
That pressure is being intensified by the continued rise in credit-push fraud and business email compromise, with PaymentsJournal citing FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center data estimating $8.5 billion in losses tied to those schemes between 2022 and 2024. The report said ACH originators and other payment stakeholders are under growing pressure to verify account details more accurately and more quickly before payments are released.
In the webinar, Nacha’s Charles Ellert said manual verification has historically been labor-intensive and costly, while Javelin’s Hugh Thomas said organizations have long relied on inconsistent methods such as penny tests and mailed checks. PaymentsJournal said newer account-validation tools are increasingly being viewed as a way to reduce exceptions, speed onboarding and prevent misdirected or fraudulent payments before they occur.
PaymentsJournal placed particular emphasis on Phixius, Nacha’s API-based secure payment information network, saying the platform is designed to let institutions validate account details in real time, reduce fraud exposure and avoid slower methods such as micro-deposits or check-based verification. The report said Phixius is being positioned not only as a way to meet new requirements, but as a broader tool for improving payment integrity and operational efficiency ahead of the 2026 fraud-monitoring rules.
Looking ahead, PaymentsJournal said Phixius is expanding to support broader validation needs, deeper integration with financial institutions and service providers, and more sophisticated transaction-risk analysis.