East West Bank Positive Pay: Building and Uploading Your Check Issue File
East West Bank offers positive pay to its business and commercial customers as a treasury management service. The bank markets it as Positive Pay Plus and describes it as a way to reduce fraud exposure on your accounts. The service examines the key fields of each check when it is presented to the bank, compares those fields against the check issue information you sent, and lets you decide whether to pay or return an exception item before it clears.
This page explains how the service fits into East West Bank's business online banking, what a check issue file generally contains, and how to build that file from your own check register using the free tools on this site. It does not invent a field-by-field specification, because the exact layout comes from the bank at setup and can vary by account.
Where positive pay lives at East West Bank
East West Bank runs its business online banking on a platform called businessBridge Premier. Positive pay is an add-on service within that platform, and the bank notes it is available for accounts enrolled in online wire or ACH services. Inside businessBridge Premier you upload your check issuance information, review any exceptions, and make pay or return decisions with the check image attached to the item.
According to East West Bank's own materials, the standard service includes the ability to upload check issuance via online banking or secure file transfer, set user entitlements and approval levels, send unlimited check issuance uploads, and keep 40 days of issue file history in online banking, along with alerts and confirmations for issues and exceptions. The platform also ships with complimentary security software, Trusteer Rapport from IBM, which is a verifiable, bank-specific detail rather than a generic claim.
Two ways to send the check issue file
East West Bank gives you more than one path for delivering issue data:
- Upload inside businessBridge Premier. You sign in and upload the issue file through the online banking interface.
- Secure Data Transfer Service (sFTP). The bank's encrypted file transfer channel lets you send check issuance information directly to the bank without signing in to businessBridge Premier. The same service can return balance and transaction reporting in BAI2 format.
If you have a high volume of checks or want to automate delivery, ask your account officer about the Secure Data Transfer route. For most small businesses, uploading the file inside online banking is simpler.
What a check issue file generally contains
A check issue file is a short list of the checks you have written so the bank knows which items are legitimate. East West Bank provides the exact file layout to you at setup, and that layout can differ from one account to the next, so do not assume field positions from any other bank. Treat the following as the general shape of the data, not a copy-and-paste specification:
- Account number the checks are drawn on
- Check or serial number
- Amount of the check
- Issue date
- An issued or void action code that marks whether the item was issued or voided
- An optional payee name, used when your account is set up for payee positive pay
Files commonly come in either fixed-width or delimited (CSV) form, and amounts are sometimes expected with an implied decimal, meaning 1250.00 is written as 125000. Whether your account uses any of these conventions is decided by the layout the bank hands you. For background on these choices, see our positive pay file format reference and the notes on implied decimal amounts and fixed width versus CSV.
Build the file from your register
You can turn a check register from QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, NetSuite, or a plain spreadsheet into a positive pay file with the free generator on this site. The custom format builder lets you match East West Bank's exact requirements: choose fixed-width or delimited output, set each column in the order the bank wants, format the date the way the bank specifies, and apply an implied decimal if your layout calls for one. Save the format once and reuse it for every upload.
A practical workflow looks like this:
- Export or copy your issued and voided checks into the generator.
- Map your columns to account number, check number, amount, issue date, action code, and payee if used.
- Match the field order, delimiter, date format, and amount format to the East West Bank layout.
- Generate the file and upload it in businessBridge Premier or send it through Secure Data Transfer.
Verify your first file before you rely on it
Always test your first file with East West Bank before you depend on the format. Generate a file, upload it, and confirm the bank accepts it and that every check matches. A single wrong column, date format, or decimal placement can cause the bank to reject the file or to flag good checks as exceptions. Once a real upload is accepted clean, you can trust the saved format for future runs. If a file is rejected, our notes on a rejected positive pay file and positive pay exceptions can help you track down the cause. For the exact layout and any per-item fees, confirm with your East West Bank account officer or relationship manager, as the bank lists Positive Pay Plus among services priced through your account analysis. See the bank's own page for current details: East West Bank fraud prevention and positive pay.