Bank of Nevada Offers Payables Solutions To Help Businesses Protect Themselves
As cybercriminals become more sophisticated, businesses face increasing threats from phishing, ransomware and identity theft. These attacks can significantly impact a company’s financial stability and reputation.
Bank of Nevada, a division of Western Alliance Bank member FDIC, recently hosted a webinar to help organizations understand and combat the risks surrounding cybersecurity and fraud. Read on to learn how Bank of Nevada can help your company defend against cybercriminals.
How Dangerous Are Fraud Attempts for Business?
Cybercrime is a $1-trillion-per-year industry driven by profits, competition, risk and innovation. About 80 percent of organizations across the country were victims of fraud attempts, which grew by 15 percent between 2022 and 2023, according to the 2024 AFP Payments Fraud and Control Survey Report.
About 90 percent of organizations report fraud attempts are increasing. It’s crucial for businesses to implement robust fraud prevention and detection strategies to safeguard their assets and maintain stakeholder trust.
Cybercriminals attack company assets like servers, employee’s devices, networks and media such as thumb drives and payment cards.
Steps businesses can take to protect themselves include:
- Review security practices and technical controls.
- Develop a cyber incident response plan.
- Regularly update employee and vendor access levels.
- Migrate check payments to Automated Clearing House (ACH) or virtual cards using ePayables or Integrated Payables.
- Complete Western Alliance Bank’s cybersecurity training .
Choosing Payment Methods to Protect Your Business
Checks and ACH debits were the most targeted payment methods in 2023. While 75 percent of organizations use checks, they are more expensive than other methods of paying vendors. They are also the No. 1 way bad actors commit fraud.
“It’s easy for bad actors (or fraudsters) to make alterations on checks,” cautioned George Snow, Western Alliance Bank’s senior product manager.
Bank of Nevada offers several alternatives to replace risky check payments and defend against check and ACH fraud:
Positive Pay
Check Positive Pay compares your list of checks provided against the checks presented for payment. We pay only the checks you’ve listed, looking at the amount and check number.
If any exceptions are detected, you’ll be notified by email or text message. You will then review the check images online, and decide whether to pay or return each exception item.
ACH Blocks and ACH Positive Pay
To protect against unauthorized ACH transactions, you can opt in to ACH Blocks and ACH Positive Pay.
ACH Block automatically blocks and returns unauthorized incoming ACH debit transactions. The process becomes part of payment procedures, with little to no day-to-day management.
ACH Positive Pay uses payment rules for preapproved ACH payments. Rules can be specific to vendors, amounts, time or a combination. Payments meeting the preapproved rules are automatically accepted. Payments that don’t meet the rules will be presented for review. Unauthorized payments will be returned to the originating bank.
Virtual Cards and ePayables
Other electronic payment methods include virtual cards and ePayables. These eliminate the need for physical checks. This not only lowers your payment disbursement costs, but provides a secure platform for payments.
Integrated Payables
Integrated Payables improves efficiency by providing a single process for making check, wire, ACH and virtual card payments as companies switch from check to electronic payments.
“We strive to make it easy for you to utilize these payment types instead of checks,” Snow said.
Learn more about how our expert bankers can help protect your business from cybercrime. We’d also like to introduce you to our commitment to maintaining robust cybersecurity practices to help keep private client information private. Contact a Bank of Nevada relationship manager, or find out more about what our bank can offer businesses like yours.