June 19, 2019

Companies Hit Harder, Losing More, and Recovering Less as a Result of Payment Fraud

Bottomline Technologies’ 2019 Business
Payments Barometer reveals:

Despite high levels of awareness and precaution, the impact of fraud escalates

One in three businesses plans to adopt real-time payments in the year ahead

Although companies in Great Britain want deeper insight into sanctioned transactions, 70% believe the responsibility for sanction compliance should lie with the banks
 

LONDON, UK (19 June, 2019) - Bottomline Technologies (NASDAQ:EPAY), a leading provider of financial technology that helps make business payments simple, smart and secure, revealed today that 87% of financial decision makers in businesses across Great Britain are unable to recover more than half of their losses caused by fraud, with the figure rising to 93% among small and medium businesses specifically. The average financial loss through fraud sits at £240,092, with the majority of fraud losses having increased from within the £10,000-£49,000 bracket in 2018 to between £50,000 and £250,000 this year. 

The statistics are according to Bottomline’s fourth annual Business Payments Barometer. The report reveals that external cyber fraud continues to draw the most concern, with 78% of respondents noting they are concerned either ‘a fair amount’ or ‘a great deal’ about such an attack impacting their business. Financial decision makers are also concerned about being deceived into making a fraudulent payment (68%) as well as insider fraud and collusion (61%) taking place within the business. 

Further clarity required on upcoming payments regulations

Despite the increasing number of payments regulations that have been introduced in the past two years, many respondents say they do not understand new industry initiatives. Among those saying they feel unprepared for upcoming regulation, the majority are unaware of the benefits of initiatives such as Open Banking (54%), New Payments Architecture (51%) and ISO20022 (52%). 

Such a scenario means many businesses risk missing out on the opportunities that new regulations can provide. Specifically regarding Open Banking, only 17% of financial decision makers cite their preparedness to embrace the new model.

“Open Banking has the potential to free up time previously spent on back office activity. For example, small businesses can easily gain access to their different banking transactions, balances and history through trusted organisations – whether that’s a financial institution of choice or an approved Payment Service Provider (PSP),” said Nigel Savory, Managing Director, Europe, Bottomline Technologies. “Those yet to embrace the new model could potentially risk falling behind the frontrunners when it comes creating efficiencies within their own organisation or offering new value-add services to their customers.”

Real-time payments set to become industry standard

In a move which mirrors the increased consumer demand for faster payments, over one-third (37%) of financial decision makers say their businesses plan to adopt real-time payments within the next 12 months. In addition to the existing 53% who have already adopted the technology, this indicates 90% of those surveyed are set to implement real-time payments by the end of 2020.

“Real-time payments brings heightened visibility and efficiency to the payments landscape and will be especially impactful for small businesses looking to improve their cash flow and have their debts settled more quickly,” said Savory. “Given that the technology has been in place since 2008, smaller companies have begun to expect the same payment experience they are accustomed to as consumers.”

Heightened concern over international volatility and Brexit

With the UK’s exit from Europe still not resolved, it’s unsurprising that survey respondents ranked ‘Changes in trading environment’ as the second greatest influence on payment processes over the next 12 months. 

In the context of Brexit, the Barometer suggests that those who have previously outsourced services to continental Europe are renewing their contracts on a much more short-term basis, pursuing a ‘wait-and-see’ strategy. Research respondents also cite concern about finding the same value for money and experience in the UK for business services such as underwriting.

The vast majority (76%) of financial decision makers surveyed also indicated they are fairly or very concerned over establishing new, creditworthy trading partnerships, as well as the transparency of cross-border payments fees (73%), and FX, tax and tariff changes (76%).

In a move signaling heightened concern over international processes and forming new trade relationships, the Barometer reveals that 25% of financial decision makers plan to stop making international payments. However, this is offset against the 53% who intend to continue and the 10% that intend to start making international payments.

Outsourcing responsibility over sanctions

With an increase in global sanctions and heightened tensions, the vast majority of respondents expressed their desire to be involved in the process and have more insight. Of those surveyed, 84% would like to know if a payment is being made to a sanctioned organisation, and 81% would like to be able to track all payments to their destination.

Despite wanting more visibility, the majority (70%) of respondents believe that it is the responsibility of banks rather than themselves to comply with such measures. Such a belief corresponds heavily with the large perception (71%) that banks are the institutions most impacted by anti-money laundering regulations. Whether this model is sustainable is questionable. What is clear is that it is in corporates’ best interest to take more accountability for the sanctions-checking of their payments.

“Uncertainty and volatility continues to define 2019, with concern over international payments, cyber fraud and looming regulation,” said Savory. “Such an environment, however, provides businesses with the opportunity to surge ahead of the pack by embracing change and reaping the rewards of early adoption.” 

“Regulations such as Open Banking have huge potential to radically alter the payments landscape, and we are beginning to see small companies hold consumer-like expectations when it comes to the seamless experience of real-time payments. Businesses are naturally cautious of volatility, but with a careful approach, such a paradigm can provide a competitive advantage to business by allowing them to offer cutting-edge payments capabilities.”
 

Notes to editors

The research has been conducted in partnership with Ipsos Mori and has been commissioned by Bottomline Technologies. 

The research consisted of an online survey among 400 financial decision makers in England, Scotland and Wales, and included a series of follow-up in-depth interviews with those who had completed the survey.  

Financial decision makers are defined as those who input solely or as part of a group in to the purchase of accounting, tax or financial services. 

The sample of 400 interviews was split into 100 financial decision makers each from small (10-249 employees or annual turnover of less than £2,000,000), medium (250 to 999 employees or annual turnover between £2,000,000 and £124,999,999), large (1,000 to 9,999 employees or annual turnover between £125,000,000 and £499,999,999) and enterprise organisations (10,000+ employees or annual turnover £500,000,000+). 

Data was weighted to be representative of businesses in Great Britain on average turnover across business size. We used ONS-Business population estimates 2018 to calculate the weighting. 

Fieldwork conducted in February-March 2019

About Bottomline Technologies 

Bottomline Technologies (NASDAQ: EPAY) helps make complex business payments simple, smart, and secure. Corporations and banks rely on Bottomline for domestic and international payments, efficient cash management, automated workflows for payment processing and bill review, and state of the art fraud detection, behavioral analytics and regulatory compliance solutions. Thousands of corporations around the world benefit from Bottomline solutions. Headquartered in Portsmouth, NH, Bottomline delights customers through offices across the U.S., Europe, and Asia-Pacific. For more information visit www.bottomline.com.

Contact for media

John Stevens
VP, Corporate Marketing
Bottomline

pr@bottomline.com
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