A fraud prevention tool from Southwest Corporate...

Southwest Corporate has teamed with Early Warning Services to offer member credit unions the DEPOSIT CHEK Reader service which is specifically designed to help curb the impact of check fraud.

Within seconds, credit union tellers and front-line staff can now receive, via dial-up MICR reader, data to avoid a loss before it happens on items presented for deposit. The alert data is reported and used by the very largest financial institutions in the U.S., including most major banks. The data base, updated daily, contains:

• Account status on over 210 million accounts
• Over 18 million stop payment records
• Over 1 million negative account and counterfeit item records

You receive:

• Account status, negative and positive
• Return items
• Stop payments
• Non-DDA items

How it works

1. You install dial-up MICR readers at teller stations, new accounts desk, other high-risk deposit processing areas.
2. Your front-line staff inserts checks in reader as presented. Suggested criteria are
• Off-us checks of $500 or more
• Checks with $500 or more cash back
• Checks used to fund a new account
3. The MICR line is transmitted via analog phone line to Early Warning
4. Early Warning matches the MICR with account, stop and return data provided by the reporting financial institutions.
5. The system responds with one of 17 statuses. For example, you may receive:
• Account status: Open/valid, Closed, Closed for Cause, Account Returning Items
• Stop Payments
• Non-DDA: Credit Card Check, Line of Credit, Broker Check
6. You make a decision to accept the check according to your credit union’s policy.

The financial institutions that report and own the data approved the following use for the statuses provided through DEPOSIT CHEK Reader service:
• Place or extend holds (subject to Regulation CC)
• Refuse to cash a check or perform a “less cash” (or cash back) transaction
• Refuse to accept a check for payment of goods/services (e.g. an off-us check for the purchase of traveler’s checks or money orders)

No need for real-time notification? Then check out DEPOSIT CHEK Inquiry

For more information, contact an Account Executive at 800.442.5763.