According to a Bottomline Technologies survey, 60% of companies now report experiencing fraud with a 50% increase in fraud over the past three years.
This comes as fraudsters continue to find more sophisticated methods to carry out attacks. Automated attacks outpaced high-touch attack methods such as check fraud.
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The top areas where participants reported increased defence spend were business email compromise (48%), bank transaction fraud (36%) and transaction controls (33%).
Chris Gerda, Risk and Fraud Prevention Officer, Bottomline, said: “There’s been steady progress, but fraud prevention efforts must outpace increasingly sophisticated fraudsters.
“The survey results highlight the need for defence spending at each step of a payment, especially at the human level.”
In the same study conducted in 2017, only 40% of companies reported experiencing fraud.
This year’s survey also found that there were differences in ways companies experience fraud based on their size. Large companies have a 10% disadvantage versus small companies as they are targeted more regularly with higher payout methods.
Defence costs increase
In addition, 43% of respondents suggested that the costs of defence have increased in the past year. Also, 19% of banks reported a significant increase in spending for fraud prevention and controls in the past year.
Craig Jeffery, Managing Partner, Strategic Treasurer, said: ” No one is immune to fraud. Banks and corporates of all sizes must critically evaluate their processes for preventing and detecting fraud for all payment methods.”
Furthermore, the report shows that there were little to no improvements for visibility to bank accounts or reconciliation frequency. According to Bottomline, by improving visibility and promoting defence as part of company culture, there is opportunity to mitigate payment fraud risk and reduce losses.
The survey also reveals that 47% of corporates have added employee training programmes in the last year.
Earlier this month, MetroBank enabled direct debit origination for business customers through a partnership with Bottomline Technologies.
Through this partnership, Metro Bank has deployed new technology to take greater control of its payments capabilities.
