Universal positive pay match, authentication, authorization, settlement and clearing system

A computer implemented method for detecting fraud in financial transactions during a payment clearing process, said method comprising:

• storing in a database records of financial transactions relating to payments, including at least a first record of a first financial transaction, each financial transaction record including a plurality of parameters,
• receiving at the database a plurality of separate records of the first financial transaction from at least two of the following participants in the payment clearing process:
• payee, payee bank, intermediary bank, bank of first deposit, clearing bank, Federal Reserve Bank, third party payment processor and payer bank;
• each of said separate records received at the database including at least some of the same parameters stored in the first record,
• determining if there is a match between at least two of the parameters of each said separate record of the first financial transaction received at the database and the same parameters of the first record of the first financial transaction stored in the database, and
• sending a notification to the participant regarding the matching of the parameters of the separate record with the first record.

A computer implemented method for detecting fraud in a check clearing process, said method comprising:

• providing a computer having a database;
• storing in said database check register information relating to a check executed by a payer for payment, the check register information including at least three of the following:
• a check number, a date issued, a payee, a routing number, an account number, and an amount;
• providing a network interface available to at least two participants in the check clearing process selected from the group comprising:
• the payer who executed the check, a payee of the executed check, a payee bank, a payer bank, banking institutions intermediate the payee bank and the payer bank, a clearing bank, a Federal Reserve Bank, and a third party processor;
• enabling the at least two participants to communicate separately with the computer via the network interface in order to determine correspondence between the check register information stored in said database and the check register information on the executed check as it is presented for payment as it moves along the check clearing process;
• providing a notification to each of the at least two participants, wherein the notification includes results of the correspondence determination to detect whether tampering or altering has occurred to the executed check as it moves along the check clearing process.

A computer implemented method for detecting errors in processing financial transactions, said method comprising:

• providing at least one computer having a processor, an area of main memory, and a storage device having a database;
• storing in the database records of financial transactions relating to payments, including at least a first record of a first financial transaction, each financial transaction record including a plurality of parameters;
• receiving at the computer a second record of the first financial transaction from a participant in a payment clearing process as the first financial transaction moves through the payment clearing process, the second record including at least some of the same parameters that are in the first record of the first financial transaction,
• wherein the participant is selected from the group comprising:
• payee, payee bank, intermediary bank, bank of first deposit, clearing bank, Federal Reserve Bank, payer bank and third party payment processor;
• determining if there is a match between at least one of the parameters of the second record of the first financial transaction received at the computer and one of the same parameters in the first record of the first financial transaction stored in the database, and
• sending a notification to the participant with results from the matching of the parameters of the second record with the parameters of the first record.