We partnered with FinTech North to deliver The Operational Resilience Forum where we looked at what ‘Operational Resilience’ means from different perspectives, and how businesses can navigate risk across their processes. We looked at the ways corporate-to-bank connectivity can help your finance team achieve operational resilience. If you missed the event, but you’re concerned about internal fraud or human error in your corporate banking processes, you’re not alone.
We’ve summarised what we discussed, but soon you will be able to also watch the full event here.
In today’s world, where cyber threats and financial crimes are on the rise, it’s more important than ever to ensure your corporate transactions are secure and accurate. Manual processes can impact your risk of internal fraud or human error, however, by adopting practical solutions designed to mitigate these risks, you can safeguard your business against potential threats.
So, let’s talk about online banking portals and the risks they can pose for your corporate finances.
Whilst online banking and bank portals are secure, they were not originally designed for corporate use. These platforms were created for individual account holders to manage their own finances. Whilst they have been adapted to accommodate corporate needs, the basic premise remains the same; an individual needs to manually log in to manage individual transactions. When an individual is dealing with a large volume of payments at high costs, across multiple bank accounts, the implications associated with fraudulent activity or human error could be potentially catastrophic for a business. But, what are the alternatives?
Understanding Corporate-to-Bank Connectivity
Many UK high street banks offer different means of accessing your account that can reduce the risk of internal fraud or human error. One method is a Host-to-Host connection, which allows you to connect your back-office system directly to your bank account without any manual intervention. Bacs is another option for making GBP payments and connecting your back office system to your bank using the Bacs scheme. Additionally, most banks offer a SWIFT connection service for payment instructions and statement delivery over the SWIFT network. More on corporate-to-bank connectivity here.
Whilst these connections may require special resources and knowledge to implement compared to free bank portals, there are different options available such as building connections in-house (known as a DIY solution) or working with 3rd party suppliers in the market, like us.
As a corporate-to-bank integration partner; our technology sits between your back office systems (ERP, Human Capital Management, and Treasury Management System) and your banks.
Improved payment controls for global operations
It’s important to note that while we’ve been discussing one back-office system and one bank, many organizations have multiple systems and banking partners, which further increases the risk of internal fraud or human error. With more opportunities for fraudulent transactions to slip through the cracks and potentially be covered up with amended transaction information on statements, it’s crucial to have a secure solution to prevent such risks.
Our system allows payments to flow automatically to the bank and then receive statement data back automatically too, removing the unnecessary need for manual input.
By utilizing this payment process, we can provide even greater controls to ensure security and accuracy. These controls include the validation of bank details, sanction screening of beneficiary information, duplicate file detection, and fraud detection for new recipients. Additionally, our approvals process is customizable to your business processes rather than being dictated by the bank. This approval process can even be enabled from a mobile device for added convenience and accessibility. With these advanced controls in place, you can have peace of mind knowing that all payments are secure and accurate.
Find out more about the benefits of payments automation here.
Success stories
Whilst we work with a large customer base of approximately 1,000 clients, including major players like ITV, Primark, and Sainsburys Bank, one particularly interesting client is NSG Group.
Prior to implementing AccessPay, NSG was using bank portals and a highly manual payment process that left them vulnerable to fraud and human error. However, by transitioning to AccessPay’s embedded corporate banking solution, they were able to centralize their global payments team and establish a Shared Service Centre that transformed their financial processes on a global scale.
Similarly, DLA Piper – the UK’s largest law firm – has also benefited from this approach by automating their payment and statement processes to centralize supplier payments and improve operational resilience at a global level. Read more about how we also helped Darlington Building Society achieve operational resilience.
Implementing corporate-to-bank connectivity can significantly reduce operational risk for businesses by automating processes and minimizing the risk of fraud and human error. This level of connectivity can also enable even more transformative changes, such as centralizing finance processes, which would not have been possible with traditional bank portals.As AccessPay aided our Operational Resilience assessment, this became one of the main drivers why we went out to tender in the first place. We see AccessPay as a key partner to our overall Operational Resilience.
-Head of Change & Procurement, Darlington Building Society
Read more about how you can centralise your global operations.
