Positive pay is a fraud-prevention service offered by banks in which a company sends its bank a list of issued payments — check numbers, amounts, payees — and the bank pays only items that match the list, flagging everything else for review. It is the standard control against check fraud and unauthorized ACH debits.

How positive pay works

  1. Company uploads an issue file (check number, date, amount, payee) each payment run.
  2. When a check or debit is presented, the bank matches it against the file.
  3. Mismatches become "exceptions" the company must approve or return, usually by a same-day deadline.
  4. Unreviewed exceptions default to pay or return per the agreement — set the default to return.

The main variants

Check positive pay. The classic form: the bank matches presented checks against the issue file on check number, date, and amount, and flags anything that does not line up.

Payee positive pay. Also matches the payee name — catches altered checks standard matching misses, where the amount and serial number are untouched but the payee line has been rewritten.

ACH positive pay. Filters electronic debits against approved originator rules, so only the originators you have registered can pull funds from the account.

Reverse positive pay. The bank sends you the presented items and you do the matching. See reverse positive pay.

What positive pay does not catch

It verifies that a payment matches what you issued; it says nothing about whether you should have issued it. A wire sent to a fraudster after a convincing call matches perfectly. Positive pay closes the check/ACH channel; social-engineering attacks route around it through wires and detail changes — which is where callback verification takes over.