Fraud Prevention Tips for Faster Payments

October 1, 2020

Fraud Prevention Tips for Faster Payments

Based on the 2019 Association of Financial Professionals Survey, “over 60% of survey respondents believe faster payments will have a positive impact on their organization.” This is due to the many benefits that are inherent with Automated Clearing House (ACH) Services. 

Those benefits are:

  • Economical payment channel as compared to writing checks or initiating wire transfers.
  • Flexible payment format so that payment details can be provided efficiently.
  • Flexible payment windows for same day, one day or two-day settlements.
  • Expanded acceptance by businesses and individuals.
  • Increased availability of providers.
  • Dependable ACH rules that providers must follow.

 “Business-to-business (B2B) transactions are seen as benefitting the most from faster/real-time payments (cited by 60% of respondents).” The ACH network, and the rules that govern it, has proven to be so reliable that new payment channels such as Bill Pay, PayPal, Zelle and Venmo use this same infrastructure.  Over the next three years, the survey noted, there will not only be a significant increase in volume of transactions but “by using electronic payments, payment fraud impact will be mitigated.”  This can only be achieved through diligent monitoring of all information channels that touch accounting systems.

According to the 2019 AFP Payment Fraud and Control Survey, “payments fraud is at an all-time high with 82% of organizations experiencing attempted fraud or a fraud attack in 2018.”  As you can expect, the ramifications of fraud are serious, time consuming and expensive for an organization of any size but can have a devastating impact to a small or medium sized business (SMBs). Technology is changing at an ever-faster pace and businesses are looking to shorten payment timelines. We need to be prepared with easy to implement processes that will allow us to fight the fraud battle. By staying knowledgeable, SMBs will know where their business is well guarded and where things need to be strengthened. 

Having a trusted banking partner that has you and your business’ best interest in mind is key to making sure you are taking the necessary steps and employing the proper products and services to help mitigate fraud.

In order to understand fraud prevention measures, we must step back and look at business security to address potential system weaknesses as well as security processes to address individual responsibilities to help prevent fraud within a business.  Review our upcoming series of tips that SMBs can implement or consider to help mitigate risk to keep business and employees safe.

About the Author

Sherri Wolfe is a Senior Vice President in Treasury Management for Dallas Capital Bank. She specializes in treasury products and processes to support small and medium sized business.  Sherri has 20 years of banking experience, is a Certified Treasury Professional (CTP) and stays involved with her family owned business. Sherri lives in Dallas with her husband Jim, enjoys keeping up with their seven children and still gets a good laugh from a dad joke. If you want to learn more about treasury services and mitigating fraud risk, please reach Sherri at swolfe@dallascapitalbank.com.

Dallas Capital Bank is a locally owned and managed commercial bank founded to provide Dallas entrepreneurs, business owners and professionals with access to a higher level of banking service. At Dallas Capital Bank we are How Dallas Does Business. www.dallascapitalbank.com