Union Bank of California, N.A. announced expanded fraud protection that will automate and enhance the bank's current check fraud detection capabilities.

With this new suite of products, the bank has broadened its positive pay service to detect any alterations to a check, including payee names. Positive Pay clients will now receive notification of suspicious items as early as possible in the process, providing the bank's most efficient and cost-effective defense system against check fraud. The positive pay system verifies static check information such as issue date, dollar amount, check number, account number and payee name.

?As methods to commit check fraud become more sophisticated and prevalent, we have increased our efforts to provide our customers with the right tools to help them protect their business assets. We continually look for more advanced technologies that expand our broad range of check fraud detection services for our commercial customers,? said Executive Vice President JoAnn Bourne.

According to Alok Ahuja, senior vice president in product management, the new technology provides a streamlined service to capture fraudulent checks as soon as they are presented to the bank. ?Fraudsters have learned to take advantage of the limitations of traditional fraud detection systems. By adding automated payee name validation, the bank can now offer a positive pay service that provides an even higher level of protection,? said Ahuja.

Based in San Francisco, UnionBanCal Corporation (NYSE:UB) is a bank holding company with assets of $54.6 billion at March 31, 2007. Its primary subsidiary, Union Bank of California, N.A., had 321 banking offices in California, Oregon and Washington, and 2 international offices at March 31, 2007. The company's Web site is located at www.unionbank.com.