57% of Firms Detect Payment Fraud Only After Settlement

Real-time payments move funds within seconds, leaving banks and businesses with a much narrower window to stop fraud. Because settlement is generally irreversible, controls built around batch reviews or post-transaction investigations are increasingly ill-suited to the faster payment environment. Account verification and real-time risk screening have therefore become critical safeguards before money leaves an account.

The latest research from PYMNTS Intelligence and Plaid found that 47% of surveyed companies cannot detect suspected fraud in real time or within minutes. The study linked account checks with faster fraud detection, highlighting a major weakness as instant payments expand. The findings suggest businesses need to verify account legitimacy and identify risk before a transaction is completed, rather than relying on recovery afterward.

Instant and near-instant payment rails have compressed the window for accounts-receivable teams to validate identities, account ownership and fund availability before settlement. That makes early controls more important for payment-heavy middle-market companies, since returns, disputes and fraud become costlier to unwind after money moves. Research from PYMNTS Intelligence, produced with Plaid, shows that secure bank connections and identity tools are increasingly available, but their value depends on whether firms embed them upstream instead of relying on post-settlement reviews.

The May 2026 report surveyed 60 heads of payments at U.S.-based companies with annual revenue of $100 million to $1 billion, with fieldwork conducted March 18-30. It found 57% typically detected fraud or non-clearance only after settlement, while 17% caught problems before a transaction was initiated and 13% during authorization. Across the prior 12 months, 88% reported at least one accounts-receivable integrity issue, underscoring the gap between owning verification tools and deploying them early enough to prevent losses.