According to a recent report from CBS News, a surge in robberies of mail carriers has led the USPS to warn people against mailing paper checks, as there is now a higher chance of the checks being stolen. 305 mail carriers were robbed in the first half of fiscal year 2023, exceeding the previous year's 412 robberies. Experts note that fraudsters are mostly to blame, either stealing directly from a resident's mailbox or USPS collection boxes. As a result, people are encouraged to mail their checks directly at their local post office if they do not wish to have their checks stolen. As a whole, this serious issue is a top example of how Piie is the antidote to these and other challenges within the insurance sector. Replacing the outdated method of mailed checks with a modern, digital payments process eliminates the risk of stolen or lost checks. It is also a cost-effective strategy for insurance companies, as processing paper checks can often be a drain on a company’s resources. Additionally, replacing paper checks with credit card payments can expose the insurance company to high credit card fees. By using a fresh approach to this problem, Piie not only helps insurance companies but provides a digital payments experience for the customer, thus streamlining the approach for customer engagement.

Piie is excited to announce its recent partnership with ThetaRay, a leading provider of AI-powered transaction monitoring technology based in Tel-Aviv, Israel. Piie will implement ThetaRay’s AI SONAR transaction monitoring AML solution to detect anomalies pointing to suspected insurance crime. The technology will further enhance and strengthen Piie’s current robust risk controls to prevent financial misconduct within insurance payments.

CNN recently reported that life insurers in the United States paid out over $100 billion in benefits in 2021, an estimated 11% jump since the Coivd-19 pandemic of 2020. These payments are typically sent as paper checks in the mail, which requires the usual lag time associated with the U.S. postal service, creating anxious wait times for beneficiaries. This is prime example of how Piie’s real-time payment solution, coupled with its transaction monitoring AML through ThetaRay, provides a more robust method to make payments in real-time.

According to new data published in the Digitizing B2B Payments Tracker, 67% of insurance carriers are wanting to digitize their payment processes and lessen their dependencies on paper checks. Piie's API-driven platform is designed to help insurance companies and others revolutionize the way checks are processed.

A recent crime incident in Charlotte, North Carolina is an example of the growing check fraud issue that the United States Postal Service must contend with. A postal worker in the southern Metroplitan city stole up to $24 million in paper checks from the mailboxes of ordinary citizens and businesses, which included $8 million in U.S. Treasury Checks. Fox Business.com reported that due to these rising thefts within the postal mail system, online banking and electronic payments are becoming the safest option for Americans to send and receive money. Piie’s Intelligent routing engine contributes to the solution of this rising crime issue by providing streamlined security with its modern, instantaneous digital payment choices for customers, eliminating the need for paper checks and its manual processes. Leveraging robust networks, Piie can deliver funds through real-time payment systems operations by large networks reducing the chance of fraud.

WSOC in Charlotte, N.C. recently reported that a processing clerk at USPS stole up to over $1.9 million in checks from P.O. boxes in the Ballantyne area of Charlotte. The checks would then be sold to others who would in turn deposit the checks and withdraw the funds before banks could detect fraud. The clerk, Dontavis Romario Truesdale, is being charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and theft of mail.With this kind of criminality on the rise throughout the United States, it is vital to find solutions. Piie helps to solve these problems by eliminating the need for insurance companies to use paper checks with a real-time, digital payment solution that modernizes the payment process for both the customer and insurer.

Reuters has recently announced that the U.S. Federal Reserve is adopting an instantaneous payments method, called “Fed Now”, which will allow ordinary citizens to send and receive funds within seconds, with major banks and lenders (such as JPMorgan Chase) signing on. This “rapid payments” method has already been in place in Europe, India, and South America for years, bringing the U.S. up to a more modern standard. A major change to a payment process such as Fed Now is an easy feat for Piie: With its metadata mapper, Piie can adopt to any core system easily, avoiding any complicated internal changes to that system. Plus, Piie’s ISO 20022 model, which many real-time systems are built on, allows for easy interoperability between banks and clearing systems. Piie is practically pre-designed to quickly adopt this innovative approach to the payments process from the Federal Reserve, helping Americans handle their money the modern way.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently released a statement that money held in non-bank, peer-to-peer payment apps like Venmo, PayPal, and CashApp are in fact not guaranteed for federal deposit insurance protection, making the funds more vulnerable. 85% of “Generation Z” adults in the US (18–29-year-olds) who have used these apps would be at risk of losing their money if the company failed. While digital wallets may be considered a convenient, “cool” way of sending and receiving money, there are obviously considerable dangers that often go unseen. With Piie’s Master Card Send strategy, money is directly and securely deposited into a bank account in real-time via debit card, providing customers with the peace of mind they need and deserve when dealing with financial transactions.

A recent article in the WSJ spotlighted the current rise in check fraud (i.e. paper checks stolen through the U.S. Postal Service) that leaves both banks and customers struggling with the after-effects. The crime has doubled from the number reported in 2021 (to the tune of 680,000 bank fraud reports in the U.S.), and it often takes several weeks or longer to run checks for fraud legitimacy and for a customer to receive their reimbursement. The USPIS had reported to have received 300,000 complaints of mail theft from the beginning of the pandemic (March 2020) through February 2021, "more than double the number from a year earlier." It is another prime example of how Piie's modern, digital payments process is a solution to this on-going dilemma.

According to recent data, nearly half of U.S. customers say they would switch to a different provider if it meant a faster, digital payment method for monthly bills. 40% of customers, especially Millennial and Gen Z, say they are "extremely" interested in a more streamlined payment experience, showing that a frictionless digital-only billing and payment method is preferable.

In a recent article in American Banker Magazine, banks are described as currently wanting to speed up the process of "time consuming" activities, such as selling a vehicle, by transitioning to real-time payments. Using AI and ISO20022, Piie is able to assist banks with this new workflow, so it's easy to switch from an old process to a new one without the need for expensive upgrades.