Businesses lose an estimated 5% of their annual revenue as a result of financial fraud. Still, most firms do not consider whether fraud prevention is right for them until it is too late.
In this digital age, it is easier than ever for fraudsters to hack into your systems, and the pandemic-based shift to remote work has only necessitated the need for increased security.
It is easy to think, “My business is too small; that would not happen to me,” or “We have the basic safety measures in place; those should be good enough.” Those assumptions are misplaced. Financial fraud can carry horrible consequences but can actually be simple to prevent.
Implementing fraud risk management is a small investment to reduce the risk of financial loss. Plus, fraud prevention also helps make businesses more efficient by streamlining their processes.
Often, companies approach fraud risk management by manually reviewing checks, debits, and other financials. However, this leaves room for manual error, not to mention consuming time and resources. Small businesses might be able to monitor activity in a manual way, but as your business grows, you will have to find a way to automate fraud detection and prevention because of size and scale.
Is it time to consider whether fraud prevention services are right for your business? Cathay offers fraud prevention services that could benefit business owners, including:
Cathay's Positive Pay service helps companies keep their check payments in order. This serves as a proactive way to protect businesses from paying fraudulent checks. Each time a check is deposited for payment, our Positive Pay service automatically compares the check against a list of checks issued by the business to catch red flags and inconsistencies. This prevention service provides you with the ability to review inconsistencies, confirm legitimacy before each payment, and to approve or reject the payment.
Payee Positive Pay is an add-on solution to Positive Pay. This feature appends an added layer of fraud detection and is a solution particularly relevant to businesses that issues a high volume of checks. With Payee Positive Pay, the system also looks at the payee name on each check for possible fraudulent activity.
ACH Positive Pay allows you to set custom rules for incoming electronic debits. Businesses can set up rules for each account, authorizing payments to certain companies within a range of specific dollar amounts.
By setting up different parameters, businesses can better filter debits and automatically reject transactions that fall outside of the rules. Businesses also receive reports and can review possible exceptions and set additional alerts. If the business did not authorize an ACH, they can return the payment with the click of a button. It is that easy. There is no need to pick up the phone or send an email to your branch or banker. The whole process is automated, streamlining business processes while monitoring and preventing loss.
Fraud prevention services might not be necessary for everyone, but they are available, and they can help. By investing in simple fraud detection and prevention measures now, you can save your company time and resources down the road. Talk to a Cathay representative to determine what service is right for you. Learn more about how Cathay can help protect your business from fraud.
This article does not constitute legal, accounting, or other professional advice. Although the information contained herein is intended to be accurate, Cathay Bank does not assume liability for loss or damage due to reliance on such information.
