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Financial industry foresees no letup in fraud, survey finds

June 13, 2017

Financial and payment professionals do not anticipate any respite from cyberfraud and cyberattacks in the near future, according to a recent survey conducted by TD Bank.

An overwhelming majority (91 percent) of respondents said that they anticipate payments fraud will become a bigger threat in the next two to three years, up slightly from last year (89 percent), according to a press release.

These cyber concerns are not without merit, as 64 percent of respondents reported that either their organization or one of their clients was involved in a cybersecurity event in the past year. The most commonly cited incidents were business email compromise (20 percent); account takeover (19 percent); and data breach (15 percent).

"Companies need to be mindful that everyday tools from email to the internet can pose risk to payment operations, and the criminal toolbox is expanding," said Rick Burke, head of corporate products and services at TD Bank, in the release.

"Corporate treasurers need to create layers of control for accounts and payments processing, both within their organization and in conjunction with their banking partners."

Survey respondents noted that automating payments processing could offer greater defense. Asked about the advantages of automating payments, 21 percent named fraud control and security as the top benefit. Other benefits include:

• speed and ability to pay same day — 27 percent;
• efficiency — 25 percent;
• cost savings — 16 percent; and
• accuracy — 11 percent.

Despite the perceived value of automating payments, progress is slow. The percentage of businesses that are paper free has not significantly grown since last year (23 percent in 2016 vs. 21 percent in 2017).

Survey respondents were even less optimistic about their paperless future than they were last year — almost half (48 percent) think it will take three or more years to become paper free, up from 42 percent in 2016.

TD Bank polled finance 392 professionals at the 2017 NACHA–The Electronic Payments Association Payments conference in Austin, Texas, in April and via the organization's mobile app. Respondents included payments system stakeholders representing business end-users, as well as financial and technology services organizations.