"While Bank of America's Positive Pay already alerts GTS clients to fraud by identifying checks with false serial numbers or amounts, this new digital interrogation technology will eliminate a third, equally damaging threat by identifying instances where fraudulent names have been planted on valid checks," said Steve Vaglio, head of U.S. Product Management for the Global Treasury Services group at Bank of America.

The Payee Verification Protection Service will combine Viewpointe LLC's image archive with Fiserv's FraudGuard technology to compare payee information printed on the face of the check with the payee issue information. Payee Verification Protection stands to benefit any GTS client who issues paper checks - including U.S. domiciled accounts for small businesses, commercial and large corporations.

Bank of America will be the first to leverage a national image archive to provide a seamless image-interrogation process. This will allow clients to receive notification of suspicious items as early as possible in the process, providing the most efficient and cost-effective defense system against check fraud.

"Bank of America's Positive Pay service will be able to bypass examination of the physical document - as many other payee verification services work - and automate the interrogation process. Our technology, therefore, will provide a streamlined service to capture fraudulent checks as soon as they are presented to the bank," said Vaglio.

The enhanced service is scheduled to pilot in the second half of 2004. With its new enhanced check-fraud detection system, Bank of America has embarked upon a reconcilement program that will protect its clients with the most advanced suite of tools available today.