Clarity's New ACH Presentment Product Could Save Consumers an Estimated $115 Million a Year in NSF Fees

CLEARWATER, Fla., Aug. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Clarity Services, Inc., the leading real-time credit bureau providing fraud detection and credit risk management solutions for Middle America, announces performance results for its ACH pre-screening product, Clear Warning for ACH Presentment™.

In the small dollar credit industry, the primary method of credit loan proceeds and debiting payments from consumers has been through the use of the Federal Reserve ACH network.  Recently, banking regulators have grown increasingly concerned regarding the NSF return rate in the batches of ACH debit transactions being processed.

"It's an interesting dilemma," said Tim Ranney, president of Clarity Services.  "In the flow of the small-dollar loan transactions, the consumer applies for a loan and receives the loan proceeds, then the lender fails in an attempt to debit a pre-agreed-upon payment on a pre-agreed date, and the bank receives a $35 NSF fee for the task of simply declining the transaction."

This concern sparked Clarity's work to develop Clear Warning for ACH Presentment™, an underwriting product that pre-screens ACH debits before they are processed and stops attempts from processing those debits that are most likely to fail. As the product is currently designed, it will be equally effective in identifying debit transactions most likely to fail, whether the transaction is processed as an ACH, paper check, or some other form of presentment. 

"As the lenders continue to work to decrease the failed payment rates they incur, their primary goal is to reduce the amount of bank-levied NSF fees incurred by the consumers," said Susana Walls, director of marketing for Clarity Services.  

Performance results from Clarity's Clear Warning for ACH Presentment™ could reduce the lenders return rates from NSF transactions by 35% to 50%.  For a lender currently seeing a 15% NSF return rate in their ACH debit transactions, the return rate could fall to 7-8%. The results will vary from lender to lender.

"If applied to the traffic across the entire small-dollar credit industry, we estimate that the consumer population would see an aggregate reduction of NSF fees in excess of $115 million dollars per year," said Ranney.

For more information about Clear Warning for ACH Presentment™, visit clarityservices.com or email [email protected].

About Clarity Services, Inc.

With over 30 million unique consumer identities, Clarity Services is an industry leader in providing powerful reporting products on under banked, non-prime, and thin file consumers with real-time consumer data to facilitate fraud detection, risk management, and more. For more information, visit www.clarityservices.com.

SOURCE Clarity Services, Inc.