---
title: "What is Positive Pay? Definition"
description: "Positive Pay is a bank service that matches checks presented for payment - and with ACH Positive Pay, incoming ACH debits - against the items a company..."
url: https://realpayee.com/glossary/positive-pay
canonical: https://realpayee.com/glossary/positive-pay
date_published: 2026-10-05
date_modified: 2026-10-05
author: RealPayee
---

# Positive Pay

> Positive Pay is a bank service that matches checks presented for payment - and with ACH Positive Pay, incoming ACH debits - against the items a company issued or authorized, flagging exceptions for review. It stops altered or counterfeit checks and unauthorized debits, but not wires your own staff were tricked into sending.

_Published 2026-10-05 · Updated 2026-10-05 · By RealPayee_

## Related terms

- [ACH (Automated Clearing House)](https://realpayee.com/glossary/ach): ACH is the US network for batch electronic payments between bank accounts, used for payroll, vendor payments and direct debits.
- [Wire transfer](https://realpayee.com/glossary/wire-transfer): A wire transfer is a fast, bank-to-bank electronic payment (in the US, typically via Fedwire or, internationally, via SWIFT) that is generally final once settled.
- [Payee name check (account name matching)](https://realpayee.com/glossary/payee-name-check): A payee name check compares the name on the receiving bank account with the payee name you intend to pay, before the payment is sent.

## Why it matters for finance teams

Most payment fraud reaches AP as a request that looks legitimate. Understanding positive pay helps your team spot it and apply the right control: verify bank-detail changes and large payment requests with the real person, out-of-band, before money moves. Our free [bank-change policy template](https://realpayee.com/templates/vendor-bank-change-policy) puts that into a written rule.

Full glossary: https://realpayee.com/glossary · All terms as JSON Lines: https://realpayee.com/feeds/glossary.jsonl

## Related

- [Wire fraud prevention: how to stop bank wire fraud](https://realpayee.com/wire-fraud-prevention) - Controls that prevent business wire fraud: out-of-band verification, payment thresholds, dual approval and audit trails. (markdown: https://realpayee.com/wire-fraud-prevention.md)
- [What is positive pay? Check, ACH and payee positive pay](https://realpayee.com/blog/what-is-positive-pay) - What positive pay is, how check, payee and ACH positive pay work, what they cost in effort, and the payment fraud they do not stop. A guide for AP teams. (markdown: https://realpayee.com/blog/what-is-positive-pay.md)
- [Does positive pay stop vendor impersonation?](https://realpayee.com/answers/does-positive-pay-stop-vendor-impersonation) - Why Positive Pay does not stop vendor impersonation fraud, what it does stop, and which control covers the gap. (markdown: https://realpayee.com/answers/does-positive-pay-stop-vendor-impersonation.md)
- [Positive Pay vs RealPayee](https://realpayee.com/alternatives/positive-pay) - Positive Pay compared with vendor verification: what bank Positive Pay stops (altered and counterfeit checks, unauthorized ACH debits) and why it does not stop payments you send to a fraudster's account. (markdown: https://realpayee.com/alternatives/positive-pay.md)

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