Positive Pay

Positive Pay is a feature which acts as a fraud mitigant by allowing partners to identify specific checks they have authorized to be negotiated. COS takes the Positive Pay information and matches it against inbound forward items presented by the Fed.

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Your product(s) must be configured by the Bank in order to use the Positive Pay feature. Once Positive Pay is enabled, any checks presented by the Fed that are not authorized will automatically be rejected and returned to the depositing bank.

Authorizing a Check

To authorize a check using Positive Pay, simply call the authorization endpoint:

POST /v1/positive-pay-authorizations
{
  "accountNumber": "2645256591",
  "amount": 10000,
  "checkNumber": "3001",
  "payeeName": "Cleveland Brown",
  "expiresAt": "2021-08-20T21:16:58.722Z"
}

A successful response will provide the authorization ID along with the check details you included in your request. You should save this ID as proof that the check was authorized.

{
    "id": "6bcd87b9-58d5-4ccc-90c1-ad860161ce7a",
    "status": "Authorized",
    "accountNumber": "2645256591",
    "payeeName": "Cleveland Brown",
    "checkNumber": "3001",
    "amount": 10000,
    "createdAt": "2021-08-16T17:28:10.2151554-04:00",
    "expiresAt": "2021-08-20T17:16:58.722-04:00",
    "productId": "d3e6c8ce-3277-4cdd-bfa4-ad800131bd92",
    "partnerId": "4c5b488d-711d-428a-bdae-ad800131970d",
    "lastModifiedAt": "2021-08-16T17:28:10.2171568-04:00"
}

When a check is presented by the Fed for payment, the check number and amount are validated to determine if the check is authorized. If a match is found then the check is paid. Otherwise the check is rejected.

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IMPORTANT INFO

The Positive Pay endpoint ignores the time indicated within the expiresAt field of the authorization request. If a check matching the positive pay criteria is received after the date in the expiresAt field, it will be automatically rejected and returned to the depositing bank. After that date, the record still reflects the check as being authorized, but if the check is presented it will be rejected because the authorization has already expired.

Revoking Authorization

If you need to remove a Positive Pay authorization prior to its expiration date, you can call the revoke endpoint (POST /v1/positive-pay-authorizations/{id}/revoke) using the ID from the original authorization response:

https://sandbox.crbcos.com/Checks/v1/positive-pay-authorizations/6bcd87b9-58d5-4ccc-90c1-ad860161ce7a/revoke

A successful response will confirm the updated positive pay status of the check:

{
    "id": "6bcd87b9-58d5-4ccc-90c1-ad860161ce7a",
    "status": "Revoked",
    "accountNumber": "2645256591",
    "payeeName": "Cleveland Brown",
    "checkNumber": "3001",
    "amount": 10000,
    "createdAt": "2021-08-16T17:28:10.217-04:00",
    "expiresAt": "2021-08-20T17:16:58.723-04:00",
    "revokedAt": "2021-08-16T17:52:54.4898879-04:00",
    "productId": "d3e6c8ce-3277-4cdd-bfa4-ad800131bd92",
    "partnerId": "4c5b488d-711d-428a-bdae-ad800131970d",
    "lastModifiedAt": "2021-08-16T17:52:54.4978951-04:00"
}

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It is recommended to revoke authorization rather than place a stop payment for a check. This allows COS to reject the check payment at the rail level, as opposed to a stop payment which would reject the payment at the account level and cause a posting exception. Posting exceptions require manual intervention which in turn may delay check processing for your program.