Time to Rethink Collecting Bank Details: Let’s make Gavin happy
Issue 606: 26 1 May 2024
The headed paper method
Gavin Lawrence over at Movimo has been thinking about collecting bank details…..
Invoice fraud and procurement fraud has been around for ages, I remember first receiving a false update to supplier bank details by fax, so I suspect that was at least 20 years ago.
When we are being set up as a new supplier we are asked for our bank details, VAT number, company number, address etc. And rather than accept the bank details that we have provided at face value we are nearly always asked to confirm this in some fashion. We sometimes get a phone call asking us to confirm the details, sometimes it is a request via email. The more sophisticated might ask us to login to a specific supplier portal where I must reiterate all the information I have already supplied. I don’t mind under normal circumstances, I understand that checks are necessary, I encourage them in our training. It does sometimes feel like another barrier to getting paid but hey ho.
What I absolutely don’t understand, is the request is to provide our bank details again separately on headed paper. The first time I was asked to do this I didn’t have anything ready to send so how did I produce headed paper? Well, it wasn’t too hard. I typed our bank details into a word document, added a clever little watermark, put our logo at the top, added our company info and saved as a PDF. Hey presto, undeniable proof of our details. I am sure that nobody that makes a living out of committing fraud would ever have such ingenuity.
Fraudsters have ditched the fax and embraced the digital age, yet we continue to check bank details by asking for them provided on headed paper. We may as well send potential fraudsters a template with details of how to obtain a logo from Google search here and instructions to insert bank details here. Headed paper as a means of preventing invoice fraud is about as useful as trying to stop a bullet with a slice of wet bread. I even get asked for a copy of a statement or cheque sometimes. Who has those anymore. I typically offer a screenshot from our internet banking, and it gets accepted. Like that would be hard to manipulate!
Let’s not continue with this crazy charade. It’s time to up our security game and maybe prevent some of those seemingly innocent keying errors at the same time. There are plenty of tools out there that take far less time and effort for both customer and supplier. We can now use Confirmation of Payee checks, open banking checks and a host of 3rd party verification services and they save a significant amount of time, effort and expense. Even just going to the company website to get their phone number and calling them to check, anything that helps is a good idea.
If, however, you are going to ask them to send screenshots, bank statements or headed paper as if it somehow provides additional security then you are wasting the time of both parties.
Contact Gavin: Payment Expertise at Movimo.
Make your processes more efficient and secure
Across Europe SurePay have been thinking about the problem surfaced by Movimo and have introduced a new service that conducts an IBAN-Name Check API for Organisations.
Source: SurePay, used with permission
SurePay’s new service has been developed to address a similar question: “How can you be sure you are onboarding customers with the correct name and payment details?” and have concluded that it is probably a labour-intensive process.
Many organisations call suppliers to check the data provided. That check is important and understandable – you want to avoid paying out ghost invoices, for example. Nevertheless, the traditional method is unnecessarily time-consuming.
Source: SurePay, used with permission.
Forget asking for a copy of a bank statement, for example. Simplify onboarding, by doing away with the 4-eye principle for this confident process. Make it easier for yourself, with higher reliability.
Across Europe, SurePay’s IBAN-Name Check makes vendor management easy – just check the name and IBAN of suppliers, as well as the master data of an invoice such as VAT and Chamber of Commerce number.
SurePay’s IBAN-Name Check saves time, improves reliability, helps validate a payers account and prevents you from accidentally approving phantom invoices. In batches, these are often hard to spot. But not with SurePay’s solution as it allows you to easily check the combination of a name and IBAN.
Entering, using and verifying customer data is often labour intensive – however, by integrating a Payer Name Verification check into your systems, you can make your processes more efficient, more secure and reduce the risk of fraud.
Application of Verification of Payee (VoP)
Source: SurePay, used with permission.
This way, your customers experience a smooth on-boarding and you can be sure you are collecting from and paying to the right person.
Additionally, you know whether you are dealing with a private or business account and when there are multiple account holders.
Source: SurePay, used with permission.
For more information visit: www.surepay.co.uk
Let’s make Gavin happy
With Confirmation of Payee (CoP) becoming firmly established in the UK now is the time to proactively develop a Confirmation of Payer / Payer Name Verification service that will provide a more efficient and secure method of collecting bank details.
It would certainly make Gavin happy!
Payment Expertise at Movimo
Our Payment expertise is unrivalled. Our team have decades of experience working for Pay.UK, Bacs Approved Bureau, Bacs training providers, Bacs Approved Software suppliers and large commercial fintechs. They have processed millions of Direct Debit and Credit transactions and know the Schemes and the Rules inside out. Our dedication to the highest quality service and best possible customer support is core to our approach. We are agile and fast to respond, reliable and trusted by our numerous, long-term clients.
Contact: Payment Expertise at Movimo.
Europe’s largest provider of Confirmation of Payee
SurePay was founded in 2016 and has been providing Confirmation of Payee to all major Dutch banks since 2017. In the years that followed, SurePay expanded its customer base and began providing the Confirmation of Payee service to banks, corporations, building society, and partners. SurePay now performs over 400,000 checks each day in the UK and works closely with Pay.UK to continuously improve its Confirmation of Payee, while expanding in Europe to offer cross-border and domestic checks and connection the world via Swift-Pre validation.
Contact: Europe’s largest provider of Confirmation of Payee
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