A global study conducted by SunGard has revealed that global companies have not implemented measures to reduce their vulnerability to payments fraud, despite fraud prevention being identified as a major concern. According to respondents, 80% of organizations are not following a standardized and controlled payment management workflow across all of their entities – a key practice in fraud prevention.
Compounding the lack of standards, companies reported a high level of disparate systems within their technology environment, as well as a large number of banking relationships and accounts. These factors contribute to an overly complex payments landscape – 25% of companies operate with more than 10 cash management banks and 23% of those operate with more than one thousand bank accounts. The study highlights best practices in payments centralization to help prevent fraud, reduce operating costs and improve visibility – click here to download the study.
“Fraud is a serious risk that companies face in this complex global business environment. It has become increasingly difficult to detect, and many senior executives remain unaware of the internal fraud risks that their own firms are facing,” said Enrico Camerinelli, Principal, Aite Group. “In addition to fraud, companies with a high degree of complexity experience increased operational and transactional costs. For this reason there is an increased demand for controls such as the introduction of standard processes and technology such as a Payment Factory.”
“SunGard launched this global study to assess the challenges and risks that customers are facing in the payments space. Corporations are under increased pressure not only to manage cash more effectively, but also to do so in a controlled and streamlined manner. Introducing best practices to standardize and harmonize the payments and bank communications environment can help prevent fraud, reduce costs, and improve visibility,” said Andrew Owens, head of SunGard’s AvantGard Payments business.
