Payformance Corporation announced today that it is offering an additional level of fraud security through support of the Electronic Payment Network's UPIC® secure account identifier. A UPIC (Universal Payment Identification Code) is a unique identifier that masks the actual bank account numbers of corporate payees when electronic payments take place.
Payformance will promote and support UPICs from within PaySpan®, the popular corporate payment solution that helps corporate payers and payees transition to electronic payments. Already designed with stringent security and control, support of UPICs from within PaySpan will offer yet another layer of fraud security for companies wanting to receive electronic payments.
A dozen banks offer UPICs and more than $2.9 billion in UPIC payments have been made through the first three quarters of 2006. UPICs have been issued to more than 200 companies operating in almost every industry segment.
"As a provider of corporate payment solutions for over 20 years, Payformance has always attempted to give our customers the highest levels of protection possible against payment fraud," said Dwayne L. McAfee, President and CEO of Payformance Corporation. "By supporting UPIC, we can offer a practical path to electronic payments, and a path covered with every option for customers to protect themselves."
UPICs are created and distributed only by banks that offer the UPIC, and those banks keep confidential the actual banking information of the corporation receiving an ACH payment through the UPIC. The corporation's business partners who originate the ACH payments will not see or have access to the actual banking information, which helps prevent unauthorized payments from occurring.
No system changes are needed to accounts payable, accounts receivable or cash management systems to use a UPIC. A UPIC looks and acts like a standard bank account number, and travels through the ACH network with the Universal Routing and Transit number. However, a UPIC can only be used for ACH credit payments. A UPIC cannot be used to electronically debit an organization's account or create a check or demand draft, thus reducing the risk of unauthorized debits. The UPIC can be printed on invoices, provided on matching gift forms and displayed on the Internet without risk of fraudulent debits. Actual bank account information is kept private. A UPIC becomes an organization's permanent electronic payment address. Portability of the UPIC reduces the effort required in changing accounts due to bank mergers or changes in banking relationships, including the cost of communicating new bank account information to trading partners.
UPIC is a product offering and a registered trademark of the Electronic Payments Network (EPN), a business unit of The Clearing House Payments Company. EPN is the nation's only private-sector Automated Clearing House (ACH) operator, and processes 40 percent of all ACH payments in the United States. EPN is the only ACH operator offering this risk management tool.
About Payformance Corporation
Payformance is singularly focused on the delivery of optimal solutions for corporate and healthcare payments and reporting. Serving over 3,500 customers, Payformance has a twenty-year history of providing industry leading electronic payment solutions, print services, and corporate payment software systems. Payformance is headquartered in Jacksonville, FL and can be found on the Web at www.payformance.com.
