7 Early Warning Alternatives To Consider [2025 Comparison]

For decades, Early Warning Services (EWS) has been a pillar of U.S. bank fraud prevention, utilizing real-time data sharing and predictive analytics to prevent bad checks, detect ACH fraud, and verify identities.

However, real-time scams, synthetic IDs, and AI-powered fraud are on the rise, contributing to over $1.03 trillion stolen globally in 2024, according to the Global Anti-Scam Alliance.

Instant payments and digital onboarding have exposed the limitations of traditional systems, leading more banks to adopt adaptable detection and prevention strategies.

This guide breaks down the best Early Warning alternatives, and how each one can help modernize your fraud defenses for what’s coming next.

What are Early Warning Services?

Early Warning Services, LLC is a fintech joint venture best known for its product, Zelle®, but the company's core offering is risk management and fraud prevention services for banks and credit unions.

As Early Warning itself describes, it has been "empowering and protecting consumers, small businesses, and the U.S. financial system with cutting-edge fraud and payment solutions for more than three decades."

Criteria for evaluating Early Warning alternatives

When assessing Early Warning alternatives, banks should weigh each solution against a clear set of criteria:

1. Data coverage and sharing

The broader the data sources, the better the visibility.

Look for solutions that leverage diverse networks, including banks, telecommunications companies (telcos), device fingerprints, social signals, and global fraud databases.

The goal is to spot patterns no single institution could see alone.

2. Detection power

Can the system monitor every channel - ACH, wires, checks, cards, and P2P, in real-time? Does it adapt to new fraud schemes or rely on static rules?

Strong platforms offer fast, accurate alerts with minimal false positives, backed by machine learning that evolves.

3. Integration and usability

A good tool should seamlessly integrate into your existing workflow rather than disrupting it.

Real-time APIs, dashboards, flexible rules, and smooth integration with core systems are must-haves. Also, consider deployment options (cloud, on-prem, hybrid) and how easily staff can manage alerts or adjust risk thresholds.

4. Cost and return

Don't just compare license fees; consider the entire picture, including setup, data access, tuning, and long-term value.

An effective system should prevent more losses than it incurs, but be cautious of cheap tools that compromise detection.

5. Vendor expertise

Fraud evolves fast, so choose partners who evolve with it.

Look for vendors with a strong track record, ongoing support, threat updates, and recognition from analysts or banking peers.

6. Innovation

The best platforms push the envelope. 

Features such as behavioral biometrics, fraud network mapping, and first-party scam detection can make a significant difference.

A bonus is if the system protects the entire customer journey, from onboarding to ongoing monitoring.

7 Early Warning alternatives to evolve your fraud defense in 2025

Here's a comparison table showcasing the strengths of the best Early Warning alternatives:

1. VALID Systems

VALID Systems is a rapidly growing fintech that markets a suite of AI-powered fraud, risk, and risk-intelligence products specifically for banks and fintechs.

VALID partners with 8 of the top 25 U.S. banks and has expanded into multiple risk domains (transactions, liquidity, data intelligence).

Key features:

• Consortium intelligence: VALID Edge is an AI-driven fraud network that uses shared data from over 300 million accounts and $6 trillion in check volume to detect cross-bank fraud patterns that individual institutions often miss.

• Instant deposit and risk scoring: With tools like InteliFUNDS and RTLA (Real-Time Liquidity Access), VALID enables banks to release 99% of check deposits instantly, while its AI flags the riskiest 1% for review. These systems cut the usual 2–3 day check delay and earned finalist recognition at the 2024 Banking Tech Awards USA.

• Data-driven and secure by design: VALID combines tailored fraud analytics, business intelligence, and customer scoring with secure, compliant cloud infrastructure. The platform adapts to each bank's needs while staying current with evolving threats.

Why VALID is #1:

Compared to Early Warning's legacy system, VALID offers the agility of AI and a consortium framework without sacrificing coverage. Its unique combination of immediate funds, advanced scoring, and data sharing makes it a powerful alternative.

2. SAS Fraud Management

SAS Institute is a long-established analytics leader whose fraud platform is a staple at many banks.

SAS Fraud Management uses the SAS Viya analytics engine to monitor transactions, accounts, and user behavior across channels.

Key features:

• Real-time transaction scoring and decisioning: Scores 100% of transactions instantly using in-memory processing for ultra-fast, low-latency risk evaluation.
• Advanced analytics and machine learning: Uses embedded profiling, patented signature-based analysis, and machine learning to detect suspicious behavior and support adaptive risk decisions.
• Unified platform with multitenancy: Supports multiple departments and channels on a single installation, improving efficiency and scalability.
• Simplified data integration: Connects seamlessly with all data sources, internal or third-party, for a unified and flexible fraud detection environment.
• Comprehensive alert management: Centralizes alert triage, payment blocking, hot listing, and downstream actions within one user-friendly interface.

Considerations:

SAS offers a powerful platform, but it can be complex to manage. Most banks will need professional support for setup and customization.

It's best suited for larger institutions that require deep analytics and are prepared to invest in configuration.

3. Bottomline Technologies

Bottomline offers a comprehensive Cyber Fraud and Risk Management suite designed to address both external and internal fraud.

Its flagship Secure Payments solution is a cloud-based platform focused on detecting and preventing payment fraud.

Key features:

• Internal threat detection: Identifies unusual behavior from insiders or intruders, helping to prevent internal fraud before it disrupts business operations.
• Visual link analysis and record and replay: Facilitates faster investigations through visual link analysis and the ability to review end-user activity via screen-by-screen playbacks.
• Configurable risk scenarios: Offers configurable out-of-the-box libraries with proven best-practice fraud risk indicators, allowing adaptation to evolving fraud tactics and compliance requirements.
• Enterprise case management integration: Streamlines investigations by aggregating data from all risk detection solutions into a centralized tool, enhancing efficiency in managing alerts and cases.
• Cloud-based SaaS platform: Delivered via a secure cloud infrastructure with a user-friendly web interface and APIs, minimizing the need for on-premise hardware and facilitating easy deployment and scalability.

Highlights:

Bottomline markets its solution with slogans like "stop fraud before it happens" and emphasizes an all-in-one approach, covering everything from payment monitoring to insider threat detection.

4. NetGuardians

NetGuardians is a Swiss fintech specializing in AI-driven fraud prevention for banks. It offers a modular platform covering payment fraud, internal fraud, and AML.

NetGuardians is particularly known for its advanced behavioral analytics and consortium-style intelligence.

Key features:

• Internal fraud prevention: Connects staff behavior to customer transactions using pre-built AI models, enabling detection and blocking of suspicious activities before they impact customers or the institution's reputation.
• AML transaction monitoring: Monitors all transactions to meet regulatory AML requirements, reducing false alerts and operational costs through smart profiling and configurable dashboards.
• Community scoring and intelligence: Leverages a network of financial institutions to share intelligence, expanding risk signals, and enhancing the detection of fraud patterns through collective insights.
• Instant payments protection: Ensures real-time fraud detection for instant payments, maintaining speed and customer experience while providing scalable and adaptive protection.

Considerations:

NetGuardians offers AI-driven fraud detection as a SaaS solution, featuring fast deployment and support for Google Cloud. However, U.S. banks should verify that they meet local data compliance standards, given their European roots.

5. Alloy

Alloy is an identity risk and fraud platform focused on account opening and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance.

Alloy's niche is "identity data orchestration." It integrates dozens of data sources (credit bureaus, telephony data, government records, etc.) to automate KYC/AML workflows and detect synthetic/identity fraud.

Key features:

• Comprehensive identity verification: Automates Know Your Customer (KYC), Know Your Business (KYB), Anti-Money Laundering (AML), and fraud checks during onboarding, leveraging over 200 data sources to assess customer risk.
• Ongoing risk monitoring: Continuously monitors account activity post-onboarding to detect suspicious behavior, aiding in compliance and fraud prevention efforts.
• Configurable decisioning workflows: Offers a no-code interface for customizing workflows and risk policies, enabling institutions to adapt to evolving regulatory requirements and changing business needs.
• Step-up authentication: Provides a codeless SDK to implement additional verification steps for high-risk activities, enhancing security without compromising user experience.

Highlights:

The value of Alloy lies in its flexibility: banks can build their risk logic and augment it with Alloy's machine learning. It's designed for rapid iteration by compliance and fraud teams.

6. Socure

Socure is one of the top-rated providers of digital identity verification.

Its suite (often called Socure ID) utilizes artificial intelligence and big data to verify identities, prevent synthetic ID fraud, and improve Know Your Customer (KYC) processes.

Socure emphasizes increasing "trust" so that banks can onboard more good customers without incurring risk.

Key features:

• Unified risk decisioning platform: Integrates identity verification, fraud detection, and compliance into a single platform, streamlining operations across the customer lifecycle.
• PII verification, sanctions, and KYC compliance: Automates the verification of personally identifiable information, checks against global watchlists, and ensures adherence to KYC regulations.
• Document verification and re-verification: Employs predictive document verification to authenticate IDs and biometrics swiftly, detecting deepfakes and fraudulent documents.
• AI-driven identity verification: Utilizes advanced machine learning to verify identities with high accuracy, reducing false positives and enhancing user experience.

Highlights:

Socure excels at blocking synthetic and stolen IDs during sign-up, preventing costly downstream fraud. It also supports AML/KYC compliance and is ideal for banks targeting onboarding risk or serving diverse, digital-first customers.

7. Feedzai

Feedzai offers an AI-native risk platform primarily designed for transaction monitoring, payment fraud detection, and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance.

Its core claim is a unified model: one real-time platform handles debit/credit card fraud, digital banking fraud, AML/transaction monitoring, and even biometrics analysis.

Key features:

• Behavioral biometrics: Analyzes how users interact, such as typing speed or device movement, to detect anomalies and flag high-risk behavior in real time.
• Transaction fraud detection: Uses AI and machine learning to monitor and score transactions as they happen, identifying fraud patterns across payment types and channels.
• Anti-money laundering (AML): Offers integrated AML tools to monitor suspicious financial activity, helping institutions meet regulatory requirements and reduce compliance risk.
• Regulatory compliance support: Helps maintain audit trails and meet international financial crime regulations with built-in reporting tools.

Highlights:

Feedzai builds its AI models to scale, enabling large, globally distributed organizations to adapt quickly to new products and regulations.

VALID Systems Sets the Standard for Early Warning Alternatives

Any true alternative to Early Warning must do more than replicate the basics. It should improve on them, offering faster decisions, broader data insight, seamless integration, and real-time adaptability.

VALID Systems delivers on all of this and goes further, providing banks with a future-ready platform designed to stop fraud before it starts and support smarter, faster financial operations.

Here's what sets VALID apart:

• Consortium-scale intelligence: Access risk signals drawn from 300 M+ accounts and $6T in annual check volume to detect fraud patterns others miss.
• Real-time decisioning: Instantly scores deposits and transactions using adaptive machine learning - no delays, no guesswork.
• Instant funds availability: Release 99% of check deposits immediately while isolating risk with precision.
• Seamless bank integration: Works smoothly within existing infrastructure, supporting real-time APIs, configurable rules, and operational workflows.
• Complete customer journey protection: From onboarding to settlement, VALID monitors risk continuously across all touchpoints.

When was the last time your fraud system was upgraded?

Book a demo today and discover how VALID Systems helps banks make faster decisions, unlock instant liquidity, and stop fraud before it happens.