Treasurer Stacy Garrity: Account Validation Makes Payments More Secure

Treasurer Stacy Garrity today announced that the list of vendors qualified to provide new electronic payment security protocols (Account Validation Services, or AVS) for state government agencies has been posted to Treasury’s website.

“AVS is a powerful tool in the never-ending fight against fraud and identity theft,” Garrity said. “Criminals are constantly looking for new ways to steal taxpayer dollars, and we will do everything possible to stop them. I thank the General Assembly and Governor Wolf for giving Treasury the authority to require AVS across all state agencies.”

Act 54 of 2022 authorized Treasury to require the implementation of AVS, a significant step forward in detecting and preventing the fraudulent expenditure of public funds. AVS, which is almost instantaneous, uses bank account information and other unique identity data fields to confirm a payee’s relationship with the receiving bank account.

The list of qualified vendors includes 10 companies capable of providing AVS. Every agency, board or commission for which Treasury makes payments must choose one of the vendors to use for its payments no later than January 2024. Act 54 requires Treasury to update the list of approved vendors at least every two years.