ABA Launches Latest Tool in Banking Industry’s Fight Against Fraud

As a part of the American Bankers Association's ongoing commitment to support banks of all sizes and their customers in the fight against fraud, ABA today launched a new online platform that will allow member banks to more easily verify government checks and their payee information through the U.S. Treasury Department's existing Treasury Check Verification System (TCVS) for free.

The new tool creates a centralized point of access to the TCVS for ABA member-banks at www.aba.com. The system allows banks to verify the validity of all government-issued checks including Social Security benefits, tax refunds, federal paychecks and government stimulus payments.

According to the White House, Treasury checks, or checks issued by the federal government, are 16 times more likely to be subject to fraud. By using TCVS, ABA member banks can obtain check issue information and confirm a check's legitimacy, significantly reducing the likelihood of fraud. ABA's new platform will also allow ABA members to confirm payee name, which is a feature not available through the Treasury's existing public-facing page. This tool on aba.com will be exclusively available to ABA member banks.

"We're excited to offer this new tool in the banking industry's ongoing fight against fraud, and we appreciate the Treasury Department's support for this new platform," said ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols. "Banks accessing the TCVS through ABA will be able to spot potentially fraudulent government checks in real-time which will help protect taxpayers, banks and the federal government from millions in fraud losses."

By providing a centralized point of access on aba.com, ABA member-banks will no longer have to build their own TCVS payee verification capability by integrating the TCVS Application Programming Interface (API) with their own systems, a process that can take months to complete.

"This new ABA platform is a gamechanger for banks across the country looking to combat check fraud," said Robert Voets, vice president, financial crimes investigations, Ion Bank. "Our customers bring us government checks every day, and thanks to this new tool, we will be able to quickly and easily verify critical information including dollar amount and payee. This is a major step forward in our fight against fraud."

This tool is just the latest in a host of initiatives undertaken by ABA to help banks of all sizes respond to the growing threat of check fraud, including the ABA Fraud Contact Directory, its #PracticeSafeChecks and #BanksNeverAskThat consumer education campaigns, collaboration with the United States Postal Inspection Service on check washing and check theft scams, as well as business check fraud, ABA's members-only Check Fraud Toolkit, and a Check Fraud Symposium in March 2025 featuring large, midsize and small ABA member banks, as well as other key stakeholders, including government representatives and vendors.

To use the new TCVS platform, ABA members will visit aba.com/TCVS where they will be prompted to verify bank information to confirm eligibility.