Validating payment information in the U.S. payments world is a search for that true source of data. A collaboration between Nacha and Kinexys by J.P. Morgan is providing a path for addressing the coverage gaps. 

“The industry is … looking for solutions. The U.S. market has no single source of truth for account validation, unlike other countries. It’s very fragmented,” said Robert Unger, Nacha Managing Director of ACH Network Development. That’s where Phixus by Nacha comes in. Unger described Phixius as “a payment information network, where we’re looking to facilitate the exchange of payment-related information to support account validation.” 

Earlier this year, Nacha announced that Phixius was integrated with Kinexys by J.P. Morgan’s Kinexys Liink, the world’s first bank-led peer-to-peer blockchain-based data sharing network. The effect of expanding reach between networks is increased coverage for account validation. 

“What we recognize is that when you have these data silos, if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem,” said Robert Gossett, Vice President, Kinexys by J.P. Morgan. In building Kinexys Liink, Gossett said, “we were trying to figure out how can we start to tear down some of these data silos and improve payment processing across a variety of different payment rails.” 

Gossett joined Unger on Nacha’s Payments SmartCast podcast, where Unger said the collaboration has made it possible to “break through some of these barriers” for account validation. Had they been operating separately, he said, each network’s coverage would be limited to participants in each bespoke network. 

“But by developing this opportunity to interact across networks, right away we’ve increased the amount of coverage that people can get in the United States and the amount of data,” said Unger. “So, we’re super excited about the partnership.” 

Gossett said Kinexys looks forward to doing even more with Phixius. 

“The discreet data points are just the starting point,” said Gossett, noting that “the account validation space is moving from reactive to proactive.” 

“Where you can start to see that going is more toward the predictive, and there’s various predictive solutions as well,” said Gossett. “And once you have this baseline connectivity, the sky’s the limit.” 

Much more was discussed, and you can listen to the complete podcast below.