A non-sufficient-funds (NSF) item is a payment or withdrawal the bank rejects because the account doesn’t hold enough money to cover it. The bank returns the item and usually charges a fee of roughly $25–$35. On a business bank statement it shows up as a returned item, an NSF fee, or a returned-item charge.
For MCA underwriting, NSF count is one of the most-watched cash-flow signals. Each NSF says the merchant tried to spend money it didn’t have — and a merchant that already can’t cover its own obligations is a shakier bet to service a new daily or weekly remittance.
How NSFs move a decision
- 0 per month — clean; supports A paper and the best factor rates.
- 1–2 per month — generally acceptable when the average daily balance is healthy.
- 3–5 per month — scrutiny; often B/C paper.
- 5+ per month or trending up — a common trigger for a decline.
How we count it: the engine identifies returned-item and NSF-fee rows from the statement and reports a per-month NSF count on the read. Because the count feeds a funding decision, it’s only served with a high-confidence badge when the statement reconciles against the bank’s printed running balance.
NSFs travel with negative days — days the account was overdrawn — and together they shape the file’s paper grade.