Bank Account Validation Boosts B2B Payments Security, Protects Against ‘Bad Insiders’
Summary
At present, theres no global database that has all the bank accounts in the world, and a company onboarding a new supplier in China, Germany or Spain needs to know that the bank account theyre sending payments to is the correct one and is tied to a legitimate owner.Verifying account-by-account details represents a huge, time-consuming task for organizations, he said.The threat of fraud is not just an external one where fraudsters attack companies from the outside or present false credentials to siphon off funds. Barzam said once account-level data is stored within a companys enterprise resource planning (ERP) and financial accounting system, the information is still a target for fraudsters looking to manipulate those details from employees themselves acting as bad insiders.Nobody wants to think about their own employees, finance professionals or IT professionals as potential fraudsters, he said.But it happens.All it takes is a few staff members working in collaboration, or a single malicious actor, to change the details on file, and money winds up being sent to the wrong account. The in-house individuals are the ones most familiar with the processes, the systems, the handoffs as data is collected, transmitted and stored and theyre the ones with the access.In one illustrative case, Barzam recounted a treasurer working for a huge conglomerate who updated the details of a supplier in his firms ERP system so that more than $100 million in payments went to his bank account.The key line of defense is to confirm bank account ownership continuously throughout the transaction journey to make sure that data is not manipulated after the initial verification, he said. The technologies, he said, validate accounts anywhere on the globe, verifying the true identity of both sender and receiver and preventing manipulations across every point of transaction inside the firm too.With a nod to the companys Wednesday investment announcement, Barzam said conventional wisdom holds that the funding environment is onerous at present, and investors are reluctant to part with their money. But nsKnoxs fresh capital injection underscores investors recognition of the importance of improving B2B payments security, both externally and within the companies themselves.Looking ahead, Barzam detailed the go-to-market strategy with the new funding in hand.