AFP 2019 Recap: The Latest and Greatest in Treasury and Finance

Posted by Deborah Peace on Nov 13, 2019 11:30:00 AM



Last month, ACH Alert attended the AFP 2019 Annual Conference in Boston, an event that always brings out the industry’s best and brightest in finance and treasury services to explore the emerging technologies, trends, solutions and products driving the profession.

This conference is the perfect opportunity to connect and collaborate with peers about the challenges facing today’s treasury professionals, especially since treasurers are likely to be held responsible in the occurrence of payments fraud. In fact, PWC reports that 55 percent of treasurers indicate they have an oversight role for payment fraud risk within their organization, among other responsibilities.

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Topics: Treasury Management

Preparing for Fraud in 2020 and Beyond

Posted by Deborah Peace on Oct 3, 2019 9:00:00 AM

With 2020 just a few months away, now is the time for financial institutions to make sure that their business customers’ needs are covered before entering the new year. In fact, AFP’s survey revealed that fraudsters show no signs of stopping when it comes to attacking businesses, with a whopping 80 percent of companies reporting Business Email Compromise (BEC).

According to JPMorgan Chase, small businesses make up 99 percent of America’s 28.7 million firms, powering local communities across the country to thrive. More than ever, financial institutions should be taking measures to protect business customers, like equipping them with actionable treasury management services, to mitigate potential risks. With the large amount of fraud affecting corporate customers, financial institutions are able to provide significant value to this group while also establishing a competitive advantage.

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Using ACH Positive Pay to Fight Growing Fraud

Posted by Deborah Peace on Aug 21, 2019 9:30:00 AM


According to AFP’s 2019 survey, payments fraud has become the “new normal” for many organizations today. Reaching a new record last year, 82 percent of financial professionals reported that their organizations were targets of fraud – up four percentage points higher than the previous record-breaking year.

Historically, checks and wire transfers are the top two payment methods most subject to fraud, however, it is worth noting that the survey reported a decrease in fraud across both of these channels. While the slight decrease in fraud via checks and wire transfers may be worth celebrating – down four and three points, respectively – it is unfortunately accompanied by a noticeable increase in fraudulent activity impacting both ACH credits and ACH debits.

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Topics: Fraud Prevention

Improvements in Process: Three Solutions for Faster Payments, Better Processing

Posted by Deborah Peace on Jul 17, 2019 9:30:00 AM


Making it to faster and real-time payments poses real-time challenges for financial institutions as they encounter an exciting new reality. But as the ramp-up continues, there comes the first and most important question: Can our systems handle it?

In search of answers, keep in mind that fast payments shouldn’t mean a rush to judgement. Before racing to replace existing systems, financial institutions should look to modernize them as they implement faster payments step by step. For in truth, the industry’s existing payment systems remain perfectly viable, proven and trusted by customers. Processing methods simply need updates to appear more real-time—even as barriers to customer adoption are removed.

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Topics: Payments

Current Processing Methods in the Countdown to Faster Payments

Posted by Deborah Peace on Jun 19, 2019 9:30:00 AM

For the financial services sector, it is perhaps the ultimate and not-so-amusing irony that the drive towards faster payments has seemingly moved at a snail’s pace. There is good news, though, as the Federal Reserve’s Faster Payments Task Force has finally finished its work and issued recommendations after some 120,000 labor hours. Meanwhile, the technology to support and deliver faster payments is reaching critical mass, moving us close to the reality of real-time payments.

Yet is it enough to hope that old systems can somehow keep up? Such a non-starting strategy will leave financial institutions exactly where they were before the payments revolution began—sacrificing faster payments to remain in the past of payments.  

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Topics: Payments