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SmartDetect Guide

Introduction​

The National Automated Clearing House Association (Nacha) now requires account validations for Automated Clearing House (ACH) debits with the WEB Standard Entry Class (SEC) code- i.e. Internet Payments. The mandate requires that account information be validated prior to the initial transaction charged against the account. (Businesses are not required to validate the account before each subsequent transaction.)

JHA SmartDetect will validate the recipient’s account information for ACH WEB debits submitted through EPS web services using two sources of data:

  • The SmartDetect Allowlist – SmartDetect will use information from transactions processed through EPS to create its own “Allowlist” of known active accounts.
  • A Third-Party Validation Service – EPS has expanded its partnership with GIACT, the operator of one of the largest real-time networks for identity verification and authentication services.

When ACH WEB debits are submitted, SmartDetect will check for the transaction’s target account in the SmartDetect Allowlist. If the account appears on that list, EPS will process the transaction without further account validation. If the payor’s account is not contained in the Allowlist, SmartDetect will send an inquiry to the third-party validation service to determine the account’s status. If the account is open and active and presents no known risk of return, EPS will process the transaction with no further account validation and add the account to the SmartDetect Allowlist. If the account is closed or invalid, EPS will decline the transaction. Businesses may override a SmartDetect decline decision by resending the transaction with instructions to bypass account validation.

Please note, other validations, like velocity, will still be checked if no issue is found with the account during the SmartDetect process.

SmartDetect is an optional subscription-based service. It must be contracted by the integrator to take advantage of the features described in this guide.

Handling SmartDetect Declines​

It is important that integrations are coded to handle the following declines.

Payment Vault: RegisterAccount and UpdateAccount​

When registering a new account or updating an existing account using RegisterAccount and UpdateAccount, respectively, should an account be deemed as a risk for return, the EPS Web Service will return the following values:

  • ResponseCode = Error_Unknown
  • ResponseMessage = “Account failed SmartDetect validation”

Transaction Processing: ValidateAccount​

When validating an account in Transaction Processing using the ValidateAccount method, should an account be deemed as a risk for return, the EPS Web Service will return the following values:

  • ResponseCode = Account_Invalid
  • ResponseMessage = “Account failed SmartDetect validation”

Payment Vault/Transaction Processing: Submitting Payments​

When submitting Internet Payments, should an account be deemed as a risk for return, the EPS Web Service will return the following values:

  • ResponseCode = Account_Invalid
  • ResponseMessage = “Account failed SmartDetect validation”

By coding to these responses, integrators can include the proper error-handling and logging to alert the end-user why the account/transaction was not successful. This is similar to other decline responses that can occur in transaction processing, for example, such as Velocity_Count and Velocity_Amount which you may already have accounted for in your process.

Bypassing SmartDetect​

In the case in which an account does not need to be validated (e.g. the integrator has validated the account by other means or is otherwise assured the account is valid), the SmartDetect lookup can be bypassed by the following data element.

DATA ELEMENTTYPELENGTHREQUIREDCOMMENTS
bypassSmartDetectBoolN/ANoThis is an optional element which will bypass the SmartDetect Service.

Possible values are

0 = False; 1 = True and Null

Default to False

Note: This element cannot be empty or blank. You must provide a value of False or Null if you don’t want to use the SmartDetect on ACH, IRD or Card transactions.

Web Methods​

The web methods affected by the SmartDetect service are:

Transaction Processing

  • AuthorizeRecurringTransaction
  • AuthorizeTransaction
  • AuthorizeTransactionWithCustomer
  • ValidateAccount

Payment Vault

  • RegisterAccount
  • UpdateAccount
  • SaleFromBankAccount
  • RecurringSaleFromBankAccount
  • SDSaleFromBankAccount

Testing SmartDetect​

EPS does not currently allow for submitting transactions against the SmartDetect service in test mode.