Fraud Prevention

Each year, check and electronic fraud losses total in the billions of dollars nationwide - and fraud activity is on the rise. You cannot afford to believe it could not happen to you or your business. First Citizens can help protect your bank accounts from fraud. With Positive Pay and ACH Monitor, you can prevent fraudulent check and electronic Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions.

Two ways to improve safety

Positive Pay: This service helps detect and stop check fraud. With Positive Pay, each time you issue checks, you send an electronic file to First Citizens that contains the individual check serial numbers and amounts. We build a cumulative check register from the files you send and compare every check presented for payment against it. Any check whose serial number and amount do not match exactly with a check issue record is reported to you as a possible fraudulent item. We hold the check in question until we receive your instructions to either pay or return it.

ACH Monitor: ACH Monitor helps you prevent or stop electronic fraud in one of two ways - Total Block or Filter.

With Total Block, any ACH item received for posting to your selected
account(s) is returned automatically.

Filter allows you to establish approved ACH transaction originators for one or more of your accounts. You can also specify parameters on transactions, such as maximum dollar amounts, one-time or ongoing authorization status and expiration dates. Once your authorization criteria are established, any exceptions are reported to you for pay-or-return instructions.

While normally applied to ACH debits, both Total Block and Filter can also be used to prevent ACH credits from posting to your account.