PAYLOAD ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF INDUSTRY-FIRST ENHANCED VERIFICATION SERVICE (EVS) FOR REAL ESTATE
Technology Will Deliver Speed, Efficiency & Increase Payment Adoption Rates Across the Real Estate Community
CINCINNATI, OHIO - October 26, 2022 - Payload, a rapidly growing Fintech startup, has formally released Enhanced Verification Service (EVS) for its real estate platform, Payload Keybox, following a successful pilot phase with financial institutions. EVS is a proprietary real estate transaction technology that captures NACHA-compliant account validation in a single step, allowing clients and homebuyers to submit time-sensitive escrow payments in seconds regardless of their banking institution.
National Automated Clearing House (NACHA), the governing body for all ACH payments, enforces the WEB Debit Account Validation Rule, which requires ACH originators, such as Payload, to validate bank accounts using a commercially reasonable fraud detection system at the time of payment for any transaction initiated over the Internet. Bank account validation is commonly captured using third-party services such as Plaid, which requires customers to follow a multi-step process of validation that often includes entering online banking credentials. To instantly validate a bank account, the customer’s bank must be a subscriber to these third-party systems. Due to the complex nature of the US banking system, a significant number of banking institutions do not subscribe to third-party validation services resulting in manual validation effort using methods such as micro deposits, that typically take days to process.
“Multi-step validation services are feasible for payment workflows that are not time sensitive,” said Zach Jacob, Vice President of Partnerships, Payload. “However, for a time critical one-time payment such as the Earnest Money Deposit, user experience directly impacts adoption rates. Utilization of EVS across the real estate industry will not only enhance the home buying experience, but it will also enable brokerages, title companies, and escrow holders to eliminate all check & wire payments.” Checks and wires are slow, tedious, and fraud prone. Last year alone, over a third of all real estate transactions were targeted by fraud, resulting in losses exceeding over a billion dollars.
“With over 700 agents and 7 locations, managing these manual payments was not only tedious and risky, but very time consuming for agents, homebuyers, and of course our accounting team,” said Fern Roncone, Real Estate Broker, Escrow Department, of Chicago-based HomeSmart Connect, an early adopter of EVS. “Agents now have a simple link they can share to their home buyers directly or through the MLS, and homebuyers make their payment in a single step. What once took hours now takes minutes, and we're elated to share that the simplicity of the workflow has led to nearly 100% adoption.”
About Payload
Payload is a financial technology platform that automates the flow of incoming and outgoing payments across numerous industries. Payload uses a cutting-edge API architecture to seamlessly integrate into key business platforms, streamlining historically manual payments using ACH, Real Time Payments (RTP) and the major Card Networks. In 2020 Payload launched an initiative to digitize traditionally manual Earnest Money Deposits (EMD) for real estate transactions. Since then, Payload has expanded to encompass all real estate transactions including agent invoicing and closing disbursements. In less than two years, Payload has integrated with several real estate operating platforms, leading to wide adoption by real estate and title companies throughout the US and Canada. Payload’s revolutionary payment technology was created to enhance security, save time and money. To learn more about how Payload helps modern businesses grow intelligently, visit: www.payload.co.
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Media Contact:
Ann Keeling for Payload
513-381-3248