Payload Launches Payment Verification Service
October 27, 2022
Payload unveiled its Enhanced Verification Service (EVS) for its real estate platform following a successful pilot phase with financial institutions.
EVS is a proprietary real estate transaction technology that captures National Automated Clearing House (NACHA) compliant account validation in a single step, allowing clients and homebuyers to submit time-sensitive escrow payments in seconds regardless of their banking institution.
NACHA, the governing body for all ACH payments, enforces the WEB Debit Account Validation Rule, which requires ACH originators, such as Payload, to validate bank accounts using a commercially reasonable fraud detection system at the time of payment for any transaction initiated over the Internet. Bank account validation is commonly captured using third-party services such as Plaid, which requires customers to follow a multi-step process of validation that often includes entering online banking credentials. To instantly validate a bank account, the customer’s bank must be a subscriber to these third-party systems. Due to the complex nature of the U.S. banking system, a significant number of banking institutions do not subscribe to third-party validation services resulting in manual validation effort using methods such as micro deposits, that typically take days to process.
“Multi-step validation services are feasible for payment workflows that are not time sensitive,” said Zach Jacob, vice president of partnerships for Payload. “However, for a time critical one-time payment such as the Earnest Money Deposit, user experience directly impacts adoption rates. Utilization of EVS across the real estate industry will not only enhance the homebuying experience, but it will also enable brokerages, title companies and escrow holders to eliminate all check and wire payments.”
“With over 700 agents and 7 locations, managing these manual payments was not only tedious and risky, but very time consuming for agents, homebuyers, and of course our accounting team,” said Fern Roncone of Chicago-based HomeSmart Connect. “Agents now have a simple link they can share to their homebuyers directly or through the MLS, and homebuyers make their payment in a single step. What once took hours now takes minutes, and we're elated to share that the simplicity of the workflow has led to nearly 100% adoption.”
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