---
title: Before, During, After: Payments Fraud Prevention Across the Lifecycle with Kyle Caldwell
source_page: https://www.sardine.ai/media/fraud-forward/episodes/payments-fraud-prevention-lifecycle
canonical: https://www.sardine.ai/media/fraud-forward/episodes/payments-fraud-prevention-lifecycle
format: text/markdown
date: 2026-03-18T12:23:00.000Z
---

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# Before, During, After: Payments Fraud Prevention Across the Lifecycle with Kyle Caldwell

**Published:** 2026-03-18T12:23:00.000Z

What’s up fraud fighters, and welcome to Fraud Forward!
This episode is one every fraud, risk, payments, and operations leader needs to hear.
We talk about fraud all the time, but we do not always talk about where in the payment lifecycle things actually break. Is it onboarding? Authentication? Speed? Recovery? Or is it our misunderstanding of what payment controls actually do?
In this conversation, I sit down with Kyle Caldwell, Head of Fraud Prevention at The Clearing House, to walk through payments fraud prevention the way it actually happens:
Before a payment is initiated
During the moment of initiation
After funds move
Because once the money moves, the rules change.
And that is the big takeaway here. Payments fraud prevention is not just a rail problem. It is a lifecycle problem.
Kyle brings a grounded, strategic view of payments fraud prevention and helps reset the room on one of the biggest misconceptions in our space. Faster payments do not automatically mean faster fraud. In many cases, what shows up at the rail is simply the final step in a much longer fraud chain.
For community banking fraud prevention teams, credit union fraud prevention leaders, and anyone building fraud operations strategy around real time payments, this episode is packed with practical insight.
What you’ll hear in this episode
Why payments fraud prevention has to start before the payment rail
Where institutions confuse rail risk with customer compromise
How RTP fraud prevention differs from ACH fraud recovery and wire fraud recovery
What controls exist within real time payments that many institutions do not fully understand
How indemnity and recovery processes work in the RTP environment
Why real time decisioning matters more than after the fact investigation
Where financial institutions are over investing in detection and under investing in prevention
Why collaboration between institutions is still one of the strongest fraud controls we have
What fraud leaders should prioritize in 2026 as payment lifecycle fraud evolves
You should listen to this episode if you
Lead fraud, risk, payments, or operations at a bank or credit union
Are evaluating RTP fraud prevention or instant payments fraud controls
Want a stronger framework for payments fraud prevention before payment initiation
Need to improve post payment fraud recovery expectations internally
Are building a more mature fraud operations strategy for real time payments
Want practical insight from someone working directly inside The Clearing House fraud prevention ecosystem
If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and review the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts. It really helps with getting the word out.
### Episode notes & key takeaways
Before we double click on the notes, I just want to say that my marketing team told me I need to structure these notes a certain way in order for people to find my podcast. The below is a bit of that 😀
Before the payment: Where payments fraud prevention really begins
Let’s get into it.
One of the strongest points Kyle made is that fraud rarely starts at the payment rail.
By the time a suspicious payment hits RTP, ACH, or a wire channel, the real breakdown has often already happened upstream.
That breakdown may include:
Weak account opening controls
Gaps in KYC or identity verification
Customer compromise
Account takeover
Social engineering
Money mule account activity
Weak authentication flows
IVR or customer service information leaks
That matters because too many institutions still talk about rail based fraud like the rail itself is the root cause.
Kyle makes it clear that in many cases, the payment is simply the final move in a much longer fraud story.
For teams working in community banking fraud prevention and credit union fraud prevention, that means prevention metrics should not start with the transaction alone.
They should also include:
Quality of onboarding controls
Authentication performance
Mule account detection
Customer education effectiveness
Signals of compromise before payment intent is formed
If fraud shows up at the payment rail, you are already late.
During the payment: What RTP controls actually do
This is where fear tends to show up.
A lot of institutions still carry the mindset that faster payments equal faster fraud. Kyle pushes back on that in a really important way.
His point is simple:
Speed does not create fraud. Weak identity and poor controls do.
He explains that RTP is a credit push model. That means:
The sender authorizes the payment
Funds must be available before movement
Settlement is final
The design reduces some traditional third party debit risk
That does not eliminate fraud. It changes where the risk sits.
In an RTP environment, institutions should be thinking hard about:
Authorized push payment scams
Customer compromise fraud
Social engineering
Account takeover prevention
Pre transaction risk scoring
Real time decisioning fraud workflows
Kyle also breaks down something many teams may not fully understand, which is the use of indemnity in the RTP recovery process.
That matters because if institutions do not understand the controls built into the rails they use, they are fighting blind.
After the payment: Recovery is cooperative, not guaranteed
Okay, now let’s reset the room for a moment.
Once money moves, recovery becomes harder, more uncertain, and much more dependent on relationships, response speed, and process maturity.
Kyle talks candidly about the recovery reality across different rails:
Wire recovery can depend on manual outreach and whether another institution responds
ACH fraud recovery is heavily tied to return windows and timing
RTP recovery introduces a more structured message based process, but it still depends on action and coordination
That is why recovery cannot be the strategy.
Prevention has to be the strategy.
Some of the post loss mistakes Kyle called out are especially important:
Not using indemnity processes correctly
Letting process delays slow down urgent response
Failing to prioritize active, fast moving fraud cases
Applying legacy playbooks to instant payment environments
Measuring only dollar value instead of ongoing fraud velocity
That last point is huge. A low dollar recurring fraud pattern can still be operationally devastating if it scales.
Collaboration is still one of the strongest controls in payments fraud prevention
100 percent.
One of my favorite parts of this conversation is the reminder that fraud does not happen in silos, and neither should our solutions.
Kyle reinforces something fraud fighters know deep in their bones:
Recovery improves when institutions communicate
Prevention improves when networks share intelligence
Fraud teams move faster when they are not isolated by process, department, or rail specific thinking
For financial institutions trying to modernize payments fraud prevention, collaboration is not optional. It is infrastructure.
And for those of us in the fraud prevention community, that should feel validating. We fight better when we fight together.
What fraud leaders should take into 2026
Kyle closes with a mindset shift that I think every leader needs to hear:
Speed is not the enemy.
The question is not whether instant payments are too risky.
The question is whether your controls, workflows, and decisioning frameworks are mature enough to operate in a real time environment.
As institutions look ahead, key priorities should include:
More preventative controls before payment initiation
Better network aware fraud signals
Smarter real time decisioning
Stronger knowledge transfer inside fraud teams
Clearer operational playbooks for instant payments
Better integration between fraud prevention, payments, and operations
He also raises a concern that deserves more attention: institutional knowledge attrition.
That is real.
As experienced operators retire or move on, institutions risk losing the context behind the systems, controls, and processes they depend on every day.
Technology matters. But people still hold a massive amount of fraud defense together.