Positive Pay

Sovereign's Positive Pay service automatically matches each check presented for payment against a list of checks issued. Discrepancies are flagged through IRIS, so you can decide whether to pay or decline a suspect check.

Our online real-time Teller Payee Positive Pay system—one of the first systems of its type in the country—gives tellers the information they need to decline suspect checks presented for payment at our branches.

Benefits

• Automatically identifies possible fraud—As you issue checks, the issue date, check number, amount and payee information are entered into our clearing system. Any item that does not match the information you provide must be verified before it is paid.
• Payee Positive Pay helps reduce the potential of fraud loss—Sovereign Bank is one of the few U.S. banks that can review the payee name on the "Pay to the Order Of" or "Payable to" portion of a commercial check. Sovereign matches the payee name on the check to the list of check details you provided to the Bank. If a match is made, the check is cashed. If not, the fraudulent check is reported back to you seamlessly through IRIS.
• Delivers suspect check images online—By using IRIS, you can review images of suspect checks and relay your decision electronically.
• Prevents duplicate checks from being cashed at our branches—Duplicate payments are virtually eliminated because the list of items paid—either through our check clearing operation or our branches—is updated in real time. Each check can be paid only once, regardless of where it is presented.