Protect | Stop fraud before it costs your business
Business fraud is sophisticated, and it’s targeting companies of every size. Our protection tools work behind the scenes to verify transactions, sweep idle funds, and flag problems before any money leaves your account.
Positive Pay
Every check and ACH transaction is automatically matched against your approved list before it clears — unauthorized payments get stopped in their tracks.
Catch check fraud, counterfeit payments, and identity theft before a single dollar leaves your account.
Reconciliation runs automatically, so your team spends less time auditing and more time running the business.
Zero Balance Accounts
Keep payroll and accounts payable in separate sub-accounts that automatically zero out each day, limiting exposure without adding complexity.
Reduce fraud risk by ensuring no single account holds more funds than it needs at any given time.
Simplify cash management across multiple accounts without the manual work of moving funds yourself.
Sweep Investment Accounts
Don’t let overnight cash sit idle. Equity automatically moves unused funds into interest-bearing investments each evening and returns them the next morning.
Earn a return on cash you’re already holding, with no manual transfers and no disruption to your daily operations.
Fully automated, fully secure, and built for businesses that want their money working as hard as they do.
ACH Concentration Services
Pull funds from multiple accounts or locations into a single concentration account, giving you a clear, unified view of your cash position.
Maintain full control over which ACH entries are initiated, when, and where they go.
Ideal for businesses with multiple locations, subsidiaries, or revenue streams that need centralized cash management.
Frequently Asked Questions
Positive pay is a fraud detection service that automatically compares every check or ACH transaction presented against a list of payments your business has authorized. Before any transaction clears, the bank verifies that it matches your approved records — amount, payee, and check number. If something doesn’t match, the transaction is flagged and held for your review until your designated cut off time. It’s one of the most effective tools available for stopping check fraud, counterfeit payments, and unauthorized ACH debits.
A zero balance account (ZBA) is a business bank account that automatically resets to zero at the end of each day. Any funds needed to cover transactions — like payroll or vendor payments — are swept in from a master account as needed, and any remaining balance is swept back out. This structure limits the amount of money sitting in any single account at any given time, which reduces fraud exposure and gives you tighter control over how cash moves through your business. ZBAs are commonly used by companies with high transaction volumes or multiple departments that need separate payment accounts.
A sweep investment account automatically transfers your end-of-day cash balance into an interest-bearing investment or insured cash sweep (ICS) — such as a money market fund — each evening, then sweeps it back into your operating account the following morning. The process is fully automated, so your business earns a return on cash that would otherwise sit idle overnight. It requires no manual transfers, doesn’t disrupt your daily operations, and can meaningfully improve cash performance for businesses that consistently carry significant overnight balances.
ACH concentration services consolidate funds from accounts held at other financial institutions into a single centralized account at Equity Bank using automated ACH debits. This is ideal for businesses that maintain accounts at multiple banks and want a unified view of their total cash position without manual transfers. You control which accounts participate, when funds are moved, and where they’re directed — giving you cleaner visibility into your overall liquidity across institutions.
The best protection combines good account structure with strong internal controls. A few practices worth building into your process.
Zero balance accounts keep payroll funds isolated from your operating account, limiting exposure if something goes wrong.
- Dual approval on payments ensures no single person can initiate and authorize a transaction alone — a simple control that stops a lot of fraud before it starts.
- Verbal verification of any account change requests is critical. If an employee or vendor emails you new banking information, always confirm it directly with them by phone before making the update — don’t rely on the email alone.
- ACH Positive Pay adds an automated layer of verification on ACH debits, flagging any transaction that doesn’t match your approved list before it clears.
Yes! Small businesses are disproportionately targeted by check fraud and ACH scams precisely because they often lack the internal controls that larger companies have in place. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimates that the average business loses nearly 5% of annual revenue to fraud and theft. Positive pay is one of the most cost-effective protections available for business accounts. Equity Bank’s team can walk you through setup and upload outstanding check files to make sure the system fits how your business operates.
ACFE, Occupational Fraud 2024: A Report to the Nations, March 20, 2024