Riskified and Plaid Collaborate on Secure ACH Transactions

Riskified, an eCommerce fraud and risk intelligence firm, has partnered with financial data network Plaid to enhance risk protection for ACH bank payments.

This collaboration aims to empower online merchants, marketplaces and trading platforms to approve ACH payments with confidence, safeguarding against fraud and the risk of insufficient funds, the companies said in a Monday (Oct. 23) press release.

ACH transactions, traditionally used for direct deposits and routine debit withdrawals, have expanded to various eCommerce transactions, including cryptocurrency, marketplaces and high-value purchases, according to the release. ACH volumes have grown for 10 consecutive years, with an increase of $1 trillion in 2022, the release said, citing data from the National Automated Clearinghouse Association (NACHA).

The integration between Riskified and Plaid enhances Riskified’s existing ACH protection capability to shift fraud liability and protect against ACH “insufficient funds” returns, per the release. Riskified’s platform complements Plaid’s Signal offering, which is a transaction risk scoring engine that provides merchants with new data attributes to better assess the return risk of transactions. 

Kevin Sprake, vice president of global channel partnerships at Riskified, said in the release: “In collaborating with Plaid, Riskified’s existing ACH protection capability is further improved with enriched data and enhanced accuracy, equipping merchants with more confidence to embrace ACH payments.”

Riskified’s machine learning platform that protects eCommerce enterprises from card-not-present fraud has been calibrated to support bank payments, leveraging its vast global merchant network of over 2.5 billion historical transactions, according to the release. This enables the platform to accurately discern the key data attributes driving each purchase.

Tamara Romanek, head of partnerships at Plaid, said in the release: “Using Riskified’s guarantee solution for protection against fraud and insufficient funds allows merchants to confidently approve ACH payments for more use cases, while Plaid Signal provides greater intelligence to assess the risk of a transaction to unlock an instant ACH experience.”

PYMNTS Intelligence has found that ACH’s future is still bright, even as innovations like real-time payments and cryptocurrencies become mainstream. In the search for faster, more efficient and contactless payment solutions, ACH is a compelling first step, according to the “Real-Time Payments Tracker,” a PYMNTS and The Clearing House collaboration.