Positive Pay at The Bank of New York Mellon

The Bank of New York Mellon Positive Pay is a cash-management fraud prevention service designed to help corporate treasury teams protect their organizations from check and ACH-based fraud. Built on industry best practices and BNY Mellon's global payment infrastructure, Positive Pay gives clients an automated, scalable way to reconcile outgoing payment instruction files against presented items and to detect exceptions in near real time. The solution reduces risk, improves controls, and supports compliance with internal policies and external regulations while preserving operational efficiency.

Core Capabilities

• Check Positive Pay: Compare checks presented for payment against a client’s issued check file. The service automatically flags mismatches in serial number, payment date, payee, or amount so that suspected fraudulent or unauthorized checks can be investigated before payment is made.
• ACH Positive Pay: Provide advance notice of ACH debit and credit items based on prenotification or transaction detail files. Flag unexpected originators, amounts, or transaction types to help prevent unauthorized debits.
• Payee Name Matching: Use configurable thresholds to compare presented payee names to issued payee names. This reduces false positives while surfacing suspicious alterations or forgeries.
• Exception Management: Centralized workflow for reviewing, accepting, or returning exceptions. Role-based access controls ensure that only authorized users can take action.
• Automated Decisioning: Apply rules to automatically pay or return items that meet preconfigured criteria, reserving manual review for higher-risk exceptions.
• Real-Time Alerts and Notifications: Receive alerts by secure channels when exceptions occur or thresholds are breached, enabling timely intervention.

Benefits for Corporate Clients

• Fraud Reduction: Early detection of unauthorized or altered items reduces direct losses and minimizes exposure to reputational and operational risk.
• Operational Efficiency: Automation of match-and-exception workflows reduces manual reconciliation effort and accelerates resolution times.
• Customizable Controls: Rules, thresholds, and exception handling processes can be tailored to match client risk appetite and internal approval structures.
• Improved Audit Trail: Detailed records of matches, exceptions, user actions, and decision rationale support compliance and audit readiness.
• Scalable Architecture: Designed to handle high volumes across multiple accounts and jurisdictions, supporting growth and international operations.

How It Works

Positive Pay typically operates in three phases: file submission, presentation monitoring, and exception handling. Clients upload or transmit an issued-items file to BNY Mellon, containing details such as check numbers, issue dates, amounts, and payee names. As items present for payment, the bank compares presented data against the issued-items file using configured matching rules. Items that match proceed to normal settlement. Items that do not match are flagged as exceptions and routed into an exception management console where authorized users can research and determine appropriate action.

Integration and Compatibility

The service integrates with corporate ERP and treasury management systems to streamline the flow of issuance data and to reduce duplicate data entry. Multiple transmission methods and standardized file formats ensure compatibility with varied client environments. APIs and host-to-host connections can be configured for automated, secure exchanges, while graphical interfaces provide manual upload and review capabilities when needed.

Security and Compliance

Security is central to Positive Pay’s design. Data-in-transit and data-at-rest protections, multi-factor access controls, and segregation of duties are employed to protect sensitive payment information. The solution supports regulatory and industry compliance requirements by maintaining comprehensive logs, enabling strong authentication, and providing configurable retention and reporting features. BNY Mellon applies industry-recognized controls and monitoring to its operating environment to help clients meet internal and external compliance obligations.

Reporting and Analytics

Detailed operational and exception reports provide transparency into payment activity and risk exposure. Dashboards offer trends and metrics such as match rates, exception volumes, time-to-resolution, and user response performance. These analytics help treasury teams identify process improvements, tune matching parameters, and demonstrate control effectiveness to stakeholders.

Implementation and Ongoing Support

BNY Mellon offers structured onboarding for Positive Pay, including project planning, file format configuration, rules definition, and parallel testing. Training and documentation are provided to help client teams operationalize the service. Ongoing support includes access to operations teams for file processing queries, a dedicated service model for issue escalation, and periodic reviews to optimize performance and controls as business needs evolve.

Who Should Use Positive Pay?

Organizations that issue frequent checks or are exposed to ACH debit risk will find Positive Pay particularly valuable. It is well suited to businesses seeking to strengthen payment controls, reduce manual reconciliation burdens, and improve fraud detection without sacrificing operational efficiency. The solution benefits finance, treasury, accounts payable, and risk management teams across industries.

Summary

Positive Pay in The Bank of New York Mellon combines automated matching, configurable exception handling, and strong security to help clients protect payments, reduce fraud losses, and improve treasury operations. With scalable infrastructure, integration flexibility, and a focus on control and transparency, the service supports organizations in maintaining resilient payment processes and delivering greater assurance around disbursement activity.

Address Bank: Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
Bank: The Bank of New York Mellon
Headquarters: New York City
Products: Payments & Treasury
Type: Positive Pay