Insights

Positive Pay to Prevent Fraud

Fraud prevention is a top priority for businesses in today’s digital landscape. That’s why Cypress Bank & Trust is proud to offer an exceptional solution: Positive Pay. Our Positive Pay feature, available through our Digital Banking platform, empowers business users to set and manage controls, providing an added layer of protection against fraudulent activities.

With Positive Pay, you can rest easy knowing that both bank-entered and user-entered blocks or filters combine to create a central display and transaction reference point. This synchronization ensures that no matter who enters the data, it works together seamlessly to safeguard your valuable business accounts.

Managing filters on your accounts has never been easier. Simply navigate to the Positive Pay section within our Digital Banking menu, where you’ll find controls for both check positive pay and ACH positive pay. The Filters section allows you to conveniently view and manage enabled accounts, giving you full control over your transactions.

Within the Positive Pay controls, you can access detailed information about your accounts, including transactions and associated lists. Customize your experience by adding, editing, or removing email addresses for receiving notifications from our Positive Pay service.

Stay on top of your business transactions with ease. The Transactions section enables you to review exception items, while the Review History section displays your previous decisions made within our Digital platform. You’ll have a comprehensive overview of your activity at your fingertips.

And that’s not all! Our Lists feature allows you to establish an Allow List, Block List, or Watch List for your accounts. Transactions matching the Allow List are automatically processed, while those matching the Block List are rejected. Transactions on the Watch List trigger email notifications, ensuring you’re promptly alerted to any potential risks.

At Cypress, we understand the importance of protecting your business from financial fraud. That’s why we’ve implemented Positive Pay as an added value feature within our Digital Banking platform. With Positive Pay, you can proactively manage controls and safeguard your accounts against fraudulent activities.

The Compass – July 2023

Even though Charles Kindleberger is no longer with us, it might be said that the above quote was prescient when we look at the performance of some stocks thus far in 2023. Although the S&P 500 is up 15.91% year to date, there are a few stocks that seem to have caught investor’s attention and have increased in value, in some cases 50%, to near 200% in 2023.

Read July 2023 Compass

The Compass – April 2023

Undoubtedly many of us have experienced the typical family road trip where the car is packed, and the kids are in the back seat. Shortly after we begin our trek, we invariably hear the question “Are we there yet?” abounding from the backseat. These days this question is being posed not about the length of the family trip but more often than not it revolves around the following:

Is the Federal Reserve done raising rates?
Has the stock market bottomed?
Is the economy in a recession?

Unfortunately, the answer to all these questions will not be known until much later and in some cases, it could be over one year before we can definitively answer these questions. That being said, we are not idly waiting for clarity to these questions before employing the necessary strategies in managing your portfolio.

Read April 2023 Compass

The Compass – January 2023

What a fool believes
He sees
No wise man has the power
To reason away
What seems
To be

Although the above lyrics come from the Doobie Brothers hit 1978 song written by Kenny Loggins and Michael McDonald that was about a love affair gone wrong, it could easily describe the relationship between the Federal Reserve and the markets in 2022. Throughout the year we have experienced many ups and downs that seem to be correlated to the most recent statement from a Federal Reserve official or economic statistic and how the market interprets it.

Read January 2023 Compass

The Compass – October 2022

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity…” ― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Although Charles Dickens’ classic tale was set during the era of the French Revolution it could also be describing the market performance in 2022.Many individual equities have suffered the slings and arrows of this year’s bear market while many fixed income investors have seen interest rates rise to levels that have not been seen since before the Great Financial Crisis of 2008.

Read October 2022 Compass