Key takeaway: Merchants and processors still relying on manual fraud review should expect rising false declines and slower approvals. Fraud attempts continue to climb, and should treat real-time account verification as a near-term priority given its clear link to catching fraud earlier. Nacha’s new monitoring requirements adds to this urgency.
Nearly half of firms, 47%, say they cannot detect suspected fraud in real time or within minutes. 57% report seeing more fraud attempts than a year ago, according to new PYMNTS Intelligence research.
The report, “Fast Money Needs Faster Fraud Checks,” found incoming customer payments are the area firms worry about most, while just 13% of firms say fraud attempts have declined.
Verification speed makes a measurable difference. 60% of firms that verify account ownership in real time can detect suspected fraud in real time or within minutes, compared with just 38% of firms that do not verify ownership in real time. Plus, verifiers are roughly twice as likely to catch fraud before funds move at all (21% versus 10%).
On the operational side, slow manual reviews carry their own cost. 71% of firms point to manual review bottlenecks as a leading cause of false declines or payment delays, followed by overly conservative rules (69%) and insufficient customer data (63%).
The research also measured how ready firms are for tougher ACH fraud-monitoring rules from Nacha. Just 6.0% of firms say they are fully ready, and integration with existing systems is the top obstacle for 38% of the firms that are not. The findings are based on a double-blind survey of 150 senior executives at the vice president level or above, conducted May 18 to June 1, 2026, across seven money-movement-intensive industries.
Why it matters: The data shows two fraud problems compounding each other. Detection is too slow to catch a meaningful share of fraud before money moves, and the manual processes many firms lean on to compensate are themselves delaying or rejecting legitimate payments, adding friction and cost on both sides of the ledger.
Source: PYMNTS