Same-day ACH and faster payments are transforming how US businesses move money. The ACH Network now processes more than US$84 trillion in annual value, according to Nacha. Speed and scale have reshaped expectations for finance leaders, but they have also heightened the need for verification as fraud tactics evolve across borders.
The strength of Nacha's domestic framework
Nacha has led meaningful progress on US payment security. Its Account Validation Rule and fraud detection standards reinforce validation before funds move, reducing risk on domestic rails. As a Nacha Preferred Partner for vendor management and fraud prevention, Eftsure supports that mission by helping organizations verify vendor and bank data across the ACH flow.
Real-time validation has helped organizations lower fraud exposure, reduce returns, and strengthen confidence in electronic payments. In 2024, ACH Network payments grew 4.8 percent year over year, with Same Day ACH volume up 27.1 percent. These figures show that secure, validated rails are accelerating adoption and trust.
Global expansion raises new challenges
A recent Deloitte survey found that 43 percent of CFOs are expanding into new regions to diversify supply risk, while only 36 percent are increasing domestic reliance. As vendor networks decentralize, the complexity of verifying new suppliers across jurisdictions grows. Finance teams must manage fragmented account formats, inconsistent data standards, and limited visibility once transactions move beyond the US network.
These challenges are not theoretical. They are playing out daily as payments cross between regulated domestic systems and unaligned international ones.
When domestic verification stops at the border
Within the US, Nacha’s framework provides strong coverage. But when funds leave the ACH or FedNow rails, that continuity disappears. Cross-border transactions often depend on static checks and manual confirmation processes. Once payments leave domestic rails, name matching, validation rules, and fraud safeguards vary widely. That is exactly where vulnerabilities emerge.
Recent cases illustrate the risk. In 2025, US prosecutors extradited a man from the Dominican Republic in connection with a US$60 million business email compromise scheme that targeted a professional sports team and a healthcare company. Most of the money was routed overseas, making recovery extremely difficult. The FBI’s 2023 Internet Crime Report recorded more than US$2.9 billion in business email compromise losses, much of it tied to cross-border payment redirection.
These incidents reinforce a clear truth: fraudsters exploit verification gaps that appear between domestic systems.
Extending Nacha's principles globally
Nacha’s rules establish a strong domestic baseline: validate before you pay. Eftsure applies the same principle to cross-border payments by combining vendor identity verification with continuous monitoring across jurisdictions. The goal is not to replace Nacha’s standards but to extend their benefits globally so finance teams can maintain the same level of assurance anywhere they operate.
The next phase: interoperability
Interoperability between national frameworks will define the next era of payment security. Nacha in the US, Confirmation of Payee in the UK and Australia, and SEPA in Europe are all advancing parallel verification models. As ISO 20022 becomes the global data standard for payments, the challenge will be ensuring that verification processes travel with the payment, not stop at the border.
What finance leaders can do now
- Map exposure. Identify vendors and payments that move outside US rails and where validation currently ends.
- Modernize controls. Reduce reliance on static, manual checks by integrating vendor verification directly into workflows.
- Unify visibility. Standardize how vendor identity and bank data are validated and monitored globally.
Real-time payments demand real-time assurance. The future of verification is continuity: trust that follows each transaction, wherever it goes.
See how Eftsure now verifies cross-border payments in real time.
