Account linking

Verify account ownership, identity and account balance when funding new accounts

Synctera External Account Verification

Before funding a new FinTech account via an electronic ACH payment, National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA) rules require that accounts must be validated for ownership and use prior to processing the debit transaction. Synctera External Account Verification makes it easy for FinTechs to verify external accounts and comply with NACHA rules.

Benefits

Increase conversion rates: A seamless experience embedded directly within your app’s flow makes it easy for customers to instantly verify the account

Full visibility: Track the verification status and view the external accounts customers used for funding

Reduce fraud: Verify account ownership and identity for all external accounts as part of the customer signup and initial funding process

Remain compliant: Streamline NACHA compliance to ensure ongoing access to the ACH payment network

Reduce payment errors: Prevent misdirected and failed payments by ensuring payments are set up correctly and the external account has sufficient funds

How it works

With Synctera External Account Verification, the verification process is streamlined, automating the sequence of steps required to remain compliant and allowing you to easily track the verification status.

1. Validate the external account exists and can be used for ACH payments
2. To help reduce fraud, verify that the account owner information matches the information on file for the customer (if using Synctera External Account Verification - Identity)
3. Confirm that the external account has sufficient funds
4. Create a record of customer information, external funding source, and proof of verification
5. Enforce mandatory re-linking if users update password or add multi-factor authentication criteria

Synctera External Account Verification - Identity

Use account owner information for linked external accounts to verify customer identities

When you allow your customers to fund their accounts with you from external sources, you will want to take steps to verify that the customer actually owns the external account, and to verify that they are not using a fraudulent identity with you. Synctera External Account Verification - Identity can help prevent fraud and reduce account takeovers by comparing account owner information for linked external accounts to the information the customer gives you. It can help reduce failed, fraudulent, or invalid ACH transfers to and from an external account. In cases where fraud does occur, the account owner information provides an audit trail.

NACHA recommends including the external account holder name in your ACH file to help reduce returns due to incorrectly entered account numbers. In cases when an ACH is sent to an external account for which the account number was incorrectly entered, the receiving bank will be able to reduce delays in crediting or debiting the account by using the customer name to match the transaction.

Benefits

• Reduce fraud and help prevent account takeovers: identity data can be used to help prevent an account takeover (ATO) or other transaction fraud, either during onboarding or when the source of funds is switched
• Help determine when secondary security features like text message verification should be triggered

Example of using Synctera External Account Verification - Identity to trigger secondary security features

If a user tries to link an external account but the identity information for that account doesn’t match what the user has provided you, you can send a text message to the phone number tied to the external account, or send an email to the address tied to the external account. This helps you confirm it’s really the account owner linking the account, and not someone who has stolen their credentials.

• Use to personalize forms for onboarding: auto-fill forms with identity data when users link their bank account
• Provide a seamless customer experience and help customers link their accounts and start transacting with you faster

Key features

• Performs a check to get the name(s), email(s), address(es), and phone number(s) of the account owner of an external account, and compares the data to what is in the Synctera system in real time
• Cannot be used on external accounts verified through microdeposits

Synctera External Account Transactions

Access detailed transaction history for external accounts

Get up to 24 months of transaction history for external accounts. At your discretion, Synctera partners with either Finicity or Plaid to provide this product.

Benefits

Helps to deliver a seamless in-app experience.

Allows your customers to monitor their external bank accounts without leaving your app.

Allows you to support personal financial management tools.

Allows you to understand customer spending patterns and mitigate risk.

Key features

For ongoing transaction history updates, Finicity updates this information nightly. Plaid updates it 4-6 times per day. 

Plaid also supports on-demand transaction history refreshes. A user can refresh their transaction history to see if the transaction went through and is appearing in their history.

Finicity also allows you to retrieve up to 24 months of historical statements for an external account in PDF format. Use this functionality to verify length of account history, historical balances, and account ownership.

Cannot be used on external accounts verified through microdeposits.