Compass from ValidiFI is a decision intelligence layer that connects bank account validation with identity, ownership, fraud, relationship, and payment-risk signals through a single API. It helps organizations across industries, from insurers and payment platforms to auto lenders and higher education institutions, decide whether to trust an account before money moves in or out.
Why bank account validation alone isn’t enough
Recently, an executive we spoke with described a problem we hear more and more. Their commercial clients keep falling victim to business email compromise (BEC). A fraudster poses as an employee or vendor, emails a request to change bank details, and the next payroll run or vendor payment lands in the wrong account.
The account was real. It just didn’t belong to the person being paid.
What those business customers want most is simple: a way to confirm that a name and account number are a true match before the money goes out. As this executive put it, their clients would gladly pay a small fee to validate a payment rather than risk losing thousands.
That story is getting more common. Here’s what U.S. organizations reported in the 2026 Payments Fraud and Control Survey from the Association for Financial Professionals (AFP):
were hit by BEC in 2025
faced attempted or actual payments fraud
cited ACH debits, where a payment is pulled from someone’s bank account, making them the second most targeted payment type
Source: AFP 2026 Payments Fraud and Control Survey
Fraud is only part of it, though. Ability to pay is under real pressure, too. Fitch Ratings data shows the share of subprime auto borrowers at least 60 days behind on payments hit a record 6.90% in January 2026, and Fitch expects things to get worse through 2026. On top of that, Nacha’s new fraud monitoring rules took effect in June, and they now apply to every business that sends or collects ACH payments, no matter how small.
Our customers span many industries, including insurance, payments, auto lending, higher education, healthcare, financial services, real estate, retail, telco, and travel. Some are collecting premiums, tuition, rent, or monthly payments. Others are sending out claim payouts, refunds, reimbursements, and disbursements. Most are dealing with some mix of the same headaches:
- Payments returned for insufficient funds (NSFs) and other reasons that quietly eat into margin, with return fees, rework, and collections costs piling up while your return rate creeps toward Nacha’s limits.
- Payouts that land in the wrong account and are slow, expensive, and sometimes impossible to get back.
- No real read on whether a customer can pay. An open account says nothing about NSF history or whether next month’s premium, tuition, or loan payment will clear.
- Fraud that passes every check because the account is real. It just doesn’t belong to the person using it.
- A pile of separate tools that each return their own answer, leaving your analysts to piece it all together.
Account validation still matters. Knowing an account exists, is open, and can take a transaction is the starting point. But it won’t tell you whether the account belongs to the person in front of you, whether there are signs of fraud, or how likely the payment relationship is to hold up.
When we dug into one customer’s data, accounts with risk signals that validation alone missed generated seven times more ACH returns.
That’s the gap Compass from ValidiFI was built to close.
What is Compass from ValidiFI?
Think of Compass as a layer on top of account validation. It pulls in identity, ownership, fraud, and payment-risk signals, along with relationship signals that show how an account connects to other accounts and people, and delivers all of it through one API.
- Bank account at the core
- Identity
- Ownership
- Fraud
- Payment risk
- Relationships
Most organizations we work with don’t have a data problem. They have plenty of data. What they’re missing is an easy way to see which signals matter, how they relate to each other, and what to do about them. Compass takes care of that, so your team isn’t stuck interpreting hundreds of attributes from systems that don’t talk to each other.
Organizations have been forced to evaluate transactions through disconnected signals, separate solutions, separate workflows, and separate decisions. We’ve learned that’s not enough. Organizations need a connected view of risk. Compass orchestrates those signals into a single picture of trust, giving clearer insight into the risk behind an account or payment while allowing intelligence to be applied within their own policies and workflows.
John Gordon, Chief Executive Officer, ValidiFI
How does Compass work?
Send one request
Use the information you already collect at onboarding, account setup, or payment initiation.
Compass routes it
Each inquiry goes to the validation and intelligence sources that fit your data and workflow, keeping coverage high and costs in check.
Get one decision-ready response
Account status and history, identity and ownership matches, contact-information risk, prior account relationships, velocity patterns, and known fraud activity.
Velocity patterns show how often and how quickly an account is being used. Behind it all is ValidiFI’s predictive bank account and payment intelligence network, which looks at velocity, stability, recency, and behavioral patterns together instead of one at a time.
We also don’t hand you a generic setup. We start by agreeing on the decision you want to improve, set a baseline you can measure against, and test signals against your historical outcomes. The final configuration fits your use case, your risk tolerance, and the results it actually delivers.
What our data shows about ACH return risk
An account can be open, valid, and authenticated and still be risky. Our own signal data shows how far apart the outcomes can be:
Return rate of high-risk accounts compared with average accounts.
of high-risk accounts hit a fatal return, one that can’t be retried, such as a closed or invalid account, on their very next payment.
Payment success rate for low-risk accounts.
If you can tell those groups apart before money moves, a lot of good things follow. You can:
- Approve good customers faster, with less manual review.
- Catch links to known fraud, unusual activity, and other warning signs that single checks miss.
- Confirm the person actually owns the account.
- Cut losses from returns, NSFs, and failed payments.
Results vary by customer and use case, which is exactly why we start with your baseline.
Who Compass is built for
- Insurance
- Confirm a policyholder owns the account and has a healthy payment history before binding, then check again before a claim payout goes out. Fewer policies lapse on a returned premium, and fewer claim payments end up in the wrong place.
- Payment platforms
- Vet accounts at onboarding and before each payment is pulled, keeping returns and unauthorized debits well inside Nacha’s limits.
- Auto lenders
- Confirm the applicant owns the account and look past it to stability, NSF history, and payment behavior, from underwriting through funding and servicing, so fewer loans start with a missed first payment.
- Colleges and universities
- Verify the student and the account before enrollment, financial aid refunds, or a payment plan begins, which means less refund fraud, fewer failed tuition payments, and less time spent on collections.
- Healthcare organizations
- Confirm accounts before issuing patient refunds, paying provider reimbursements, onboarding vendors, or setting up payment plans, which means fewer returned payments, less rework, and less fraud.
- Credit unions and financial services
- Verify accounts at opening and before funding, and help commercial members confirm a payee is a true match before payroll or vendor payments go out.
- Real estate
- Confirm the account before deposits or rent move.
- Retail and ecommerce
- Vet pay-by-bank customers at checkout and before refunds go out.
- Telco and utilities
- Check accounts when customers enroll in autopay, so recurring bills don’t bounce.
- Travel, hospitality, and entertainment
- Confirm the payer before taking a booking deposit or issuing a refund.
And for anyone sending refunds or disbursements, Compass confirms the recipient owns the account before the money leaves, so it reaches the right person the first time.
Across all of these, your fraud and risk teams get one connected view that supports your Nacha fraud monitoring program, instead of a stack of tools that don’t agree with each other. For more on that approach, read our post on building a connected fraud stack across the customer lifecycle.
Frequently asked questions
What is decision intelligence for payments?
It’s the practice of combining multiple risk signals, such as account status, ownership, identity, fraud, and payment behavior, into one view so you can decide whether to approve, pay out, or review a transaction.
How is Compass different from bank account validation?
Validation confirms an account exists, is open, and can be used. Compass builds on that by adding identity, ownership, fraud, relationship, and payment-risk signals, so you know whether to trust the account, not just whether it’s real.
Who uses Compass?
Organizations that collect or send money by ACH, including insurers, payment platforms, auto lenders, higher education institutions, and healthcare organizations.
Does Compass help with Nacha’s 2026 fraud monitoring rules?
Nacha requires businesses to have risk-based processes for spotting unauthorized payments and payments someone was tricked into making, but it doesn’t prescribe specific tools. Compass can be one part of that program by flagging risky accounts before payments are sent or collected.
How do I get started?
Contact our team. We’ll work with you to define the decision you want to improve, set a baseline, and configure Compass around your workflow.
Where to go from here
Validation tells you an account is real. Compass helps you decide whether to trust it and what to do next, inside your own policies and workflows.
Compass from ValidiFI is available now. Curious what it would catch in your own data? Reach out, and we’ll walk you through it.
We’d also love to hear from you. What’s the hardest part of trusting an account in your business? Tell us through our contact form or on LinkedIn.
