Banks and Corporates Face Greater Risk from Internal Factors, Finds the 2022 Treasury Fraud & Controls Survey

Over two-thirds of banks and corporates rank business email compromise (BEC) as their highest fraud risk.

PORTSMOUTH, N.H., March 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, Bottomline and Strategic Treasurer announced the 2022 Treasury Fraud & Controls Survey results, highlighting findings of corporate and banking experiences, plans, and actions regarding fraud. It is the 7th annual survey between the two firms, whose research partnership also includes the annual B2B Payments Survey.

Results of the 2022 survey show that with an increasing reliance on remote work, banks and corporates are experiencing greater risk exposure from internal factors. Four of the top six factors include increased exposure, directly or indirectly, intentional, or not – resulting from employees’ actions. As seen in previous years, business email compromise (BEC) continues to be the highest risk factor to banks, which are experiencing more losses than corporates. Concurrently, banks continue to encourage corporate clients to adopt various bank security services. This push highlights the need for companies to increase fraud awareness training and use the security services that their banks offer.

“Across the stage of bad acting, countering both internal and external actors, there is now more technology available to detect, investigate and prevent ongoing systemic risk. Banks, corporates, and the industry together need to spotlight that reality,” said Omri Kletter, VP, Cyber Crime and Fraud Management at Bottomline. “This is another call-to-action moment for us to collaboratively encourage adoption of readily available solutions that support the cause. Among survey findings, it’s good to see that AP, AR and Treasury departments all indicate plans to increase spending on fraud detection and prevention controls. Our role as partner to both banks, in the provision of security services, and to corporates directly, is one of the most important that we at Bottomline play.”

The survey data also demonstrates that investigating financial crimes has taken a front seat, with more than two-thirds (67%) of respondents indicating their plans to use network visualizations and analytics as part of their strategies to investigate financial crimes. Visualization is a superior method to identify attack activities after the fact compared to audit trail information. The majority (88%) of respondents indicated data security, and 78% stated employee education as current controls in place to prevent fraud. Additionally, 85% of respondents indicated that Accounts Payable (AP) and Accounts Receivable (AR) are key areas to bolster with fraud prevention and control investments.

Corporations are increasingly concerned about the rise in the threat level over time. Craig Jeffery, Chief Researcher at Strategic Treasurer, comments, “The compounding view of an increased cyber threat level is astonishing. From 2019 to 2022, the percentage of companies indicating a significant increase in the threat level has risen from 16% to 29% of all respondents.” He further notes that, “this consistent secular increase in the top-level concern is an alarm for companies who may not be strengthening all elements of their defenses: systems, processes, people, and structure.”
The 2022 Treasury Fraud & Controls Survey was conducted in the last calendar quarter of 2021, with nearly 100 questions and over 300 respondents globally. More extensive results from the survey are available via a downloadable report, an infographic, and a webinar on March 22, 2022.

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