Financial fraud detection software is universally agreed to be one of the best measures against fraud.
It’s a threat that directly impacts six out of ten companies in the US each year. But when it comes to choosing fraud detection software, your company is as unique as a fingerprint, depending on your size and needs. If you’re already at the consideration stage, learn which features will help identify the right fraud detection solution for your business.
Download our Fraud Guidebook to get expert insights about the steps to follow to handle your fraud prevention project successfully!
What’s the importance of financial fraud detection software?
82% of senior business leaders agree that fraud prevention and detection is the top priority right now. There are more and more types of fraud and thieves use complex and technological methods to commit fraud.
Although offline businesses take a longer time to detect fraud, those who operate digitally are at a higher risk of being targeted. Many businesses already use social media and emails to communicate with customers and operate largely online. As more move over to online payments, fraud detection software transforms from a want to a need.
It’s no wonder then, that over $217 billion dollars was spent on anti-fraud AI software leading into 2022.
Operating without fraud detection software brings risks
Sade Telecom is one of many use cases that demonstrate how things can go wrong when you don’t use financial fraud detection software. The group received a request to change the bank details of one of their long-term suppliers. Without any reason to question the legitimacy of the request, account details were changed and the next payment went out.
It was only after the group received a late payment reminder that they realized they had become the victims of financial fraud. Even though a chargeback was issued with the bank, Sade Telecom suffered significant financial losses
However, if they had already been set up with the right protections, these consequences could have been avoided. The team has since partnered with Trustpair to perform ongoing account validation for all suppliers during the entire payment chain, protecting payments.
Learn more about B2B fraud risks by downloading our latest report on b2b fraud!
How does financial fraud detection software work?
Generally speaking, all financial fraud detection and prevention software centers around an automated platform. This enables organizations to monitor and secure their accounts, as well as protect payment from getting into the wrong hands.
Some of the most common capabilities of detection software to reduce fraud include:
- Accounts validation across the entire payment chain
- Automation
- Regulatory compliance
- Integrations with third parties
Automated account validation across the entire payment chain
Account validation refers to the automatic authentication of the account details of your suppliers against banking records and financial databases.
It goes further than simple account numbers though. Validation means authentication, allowing you to check several factors:
- Company information (country, existence and no evidence of blacklisting etc)
- Banking information / transactional data (does it exist? Is it legit?)
- Correlation (do the company info and bank info match?)
Having a functioning account validation system across your entire payment chain means that, no matter how many merchants you work with, your operation remains guarded. Your business isn’t penalized as it grows, in fact, it only becomes more secure with payment fraud avoided.
Automation
Automation is an important part of financial fraud detection software since it makes protecting your business ‘done-for-you’.
Relying on manual data entry, matching, and inputs is risky for two reasons:
- There is a higher chance of human error (and therefore fraud events)
- It requires the attention of your people, taking away from more value-adding tasks
Unfortunately, both cases lead to losses. But an automated anti-fraud program fixes both of these issues. This means eliminating the risk of human error and saving your finance function a significant portion of time. The biggest benefit to automation, however, is that it runs 24/7, so it’s almost impossible to miss a fraudster’s suspicious activity.
Regulatory compliance
Another helpful capability of fraud detection software is that it can support your business in compliance with important regulations.
Let’s take SOX Law as an example. The regulation requires publicly-traded companies in the US to disclose and report certain information about their beneficial owners and partnerships.
Financial fraud software like Trustpair enables you to stay compliant with SOX Law as it helps you perform those due diligence checks to confirm such information. We can check that suppliers aren’t on international blacklists, or aren’t located in blacklisted locations. This verification measure reduces the risk of both money laundering and terrorist financing.
Ultimately, this benefits your global risk profile as a business, since platforms can help you evaluate and control this data. Moreover, the information is traceable and archived without a time limit. So if cases of card fraud or bank account fraud do occur, external auditors can easily follow the trail.
Integrations with third parties
Integrations are a key feature of financial fraud detection software. Since they are so necessary for companies with complex operations, this is a factor with heavy weight during your considerations.
But good software for detecting fraud will work on your internal programs, and integrate with other systems. This has two major advantages:
- You don’t have to overhaul your current operations (and temporarily plunge into chaos) to fit with new security guidelines
- You can protect the entire payment chain
- Your team can keep using the tools they already know and love, without the learning curve of new programs
Digitizing third-party risk management gives your finance department more control over data, even when it comes from different sources. For example, Trustpair integrates with the likes of Coupa, Sage and SAP, alongside many other services. This integration can minimize fraud risks and makes the entire process systematic.
At Trustpair, we specialize in detecting b2b payment fraud. Contact an expert to learn more!
Features of effective fraud detection software
When considering different fraud-detecting software, there are some common features that you could compare:
- Dashboards
- Live warnings
- False positive reduction
Dashboards
When evaluating the dashboards, it’s important to consider what information you need, and how accessible it is. Consider whether you need a customizable dashboard with advanced analytics, or whether you’d prefer to work with the standard settings of your anti-fraud platform.
Let’s take Trustpair’s dashboard as an example. It’s customizable, which means you can display an overview of control distribution, including the percentage of overrides the system has made. You can also display a risk profile, allowing your team members to click on each third-party supplier.
Prevent theft and cybercrime by instantly viewing the level of risk as it is evaluated in real-time, 24/7.
Live warnings
One of the most commonly desired features of fraud detection software is that it works in real time. This can be useful to detect and prevent attempts of fraud as it happens, instead of noticing anomalies after-the-fact.
Financial fraud detection software should be able to offer live notifications when triggered by suspicious behavior in the risk analytics. Moreover, your team can use data science (based on deep learning and pattern recognition) to set rules when anomalies are discovered.
For example, Trustpair automatically prevents payments to suppliers where the banking and company information don’t match up, or where the details on the invoice clash with those on the records.
Live warning capabilities use predictive models, meaning that they make the difference between proper fraud prevention, and simple detection after the fact. This technology could save your company from the fallout of fraud.
False positive reduction
False positives refer to when a customer is incorrectly “recognized” as a fraudster, potentially due to their transactions following a typical pattern of suspicious behavior. Of course, false positives are your “better safe than sorry” in the finance world – most finance teams would rather experience a false positive than a genuine fraud risk.
However, false positives come with problems of their own; primarily that they impact customer trust. When potential fraudsters are identified, their accounts are often frozen and any orders are put on hold. This can lead to frustrations, impact operational efficiency and, unfortunately, impact the bottom line.
However, working with fraud detection software like Trustpair actually reduces the risk of false positives. We leverage machine learning technology to analyze subtler trends over time, with more sensitive analytics than a standard rule-based system. Moreover, faster processing times puts more credible information on the table, allowing for more accurate decision-making.
Choosing the right financial fraud detection software for your business
As fraudsters continue inventing more complex cybersecurity attack techniques, the detection and prevention industry will also grow. But there’s no need for finance teams to feel confused by the options or struggle to prevent fraud.
There’s a simple formula when you’re trying to determine which financial fraud detection software is the right fit for your business:
- Ensure the structure works with your current processes
- Determine a budget and choose a platform at the right price point
- Read the client testimonials (check ours here) to establish proven success in your industry
If you’re looking for a market-leading solution with a 100% record of fraud prevention, Trustpair might be the right fit. We reduce account validation time by 90% and secure third-party data for over 200 customers. Request a demo.
To conclude…
- For fraud detection, software can go beyond manual human work to identify threats and analyze suspicious transactions in real-time
- Scams can be detected before they happen by the analysis of behavior, spotting fraudulent activity automatically
- Detection software with risk assessment technology can prevent unauthorized access and fraud losses, allowing you to comply with financial regulations
