Highly Secure B2B Supplier Payments
Accounts Payable is not glamorous. But it is essential. It is also a potential risk for enterprises as millions of dollars a week in payments are made to hundreds of B2B suppliers. Checks, plastic cards, and even ACH have inherent fraud and abuse risks.
Virtual card products are the most secure payment method available today, but obstacles to supplier acceptance must be overcome to have a material positive impact on payment fraud.
This post outlines some of the common risks with traditional payment methods and Lucrotec’s managed payment service mitigation of those security risks.
B2B Payment Risks
While everyone understands the risk of physical checks, there are risks with some forms of digital payments as well. P-Cards and other “walk around” plastic cards can be stolen (either physically to be quickly used prior to discovery and cancellation) or simply copied and used online.
While card issuers provide a lot of artificial intelligence and usually cover the financial risk for theft and unauthorized charges, employee fraud is not so easy to prevent.
For B2B supplier payment, the use of physical cards requires staff to manually enter information and make phone calls, etc.; which leaves the card information exposed. The cards are often valid for years, creating an opportunity for disciplined fraudsters.
What surprises many enterprises is the risks involved with ACH/EFT B2B supplier payments. Most of the exposure has to do with bank routing and account numbers being exposed to both AP and AR staff at both the enterprise and the supplier. This information is typically shared at both ends, creating opportunity for fraud.
Using bank routing and account numbers, fraudsters can exploit the ACH/EFT network by issuing counterfeit checks and impersonating a customer over the phone to arrange funds transfers.
Virtual Cards – Highest Payment Security
Virtual cards, sometimes referred to as single use accounts (SUA), are the gold standard for securing B2B supplier payments. This is true because the card can be created for a specific supplier, a specified industry code, for a specific amount, during a specified time-frame.
It can only be used once and then it is no longer valid. Using Lucrotec, where most payments made with virtual cards are made system-to-system, and the virtual card is not created until the moment needed for payment, there is not a more secure payment alternative.
Big banks have been touting the security of virtual card payments for years – we agree with their assessment. The key is to get suppliers these payments through preferred payment routes so that supplier acceptance is high – a target the banks have woefully undershot.
Virtual Card Adoption – Supplier Friendly is the Key
Enterprises have tried bank card programs that use virtual cards for the past 20 years. We applaud the effort and agree with the banks marketing that virtual cards are a vital component to payment security. However, these programs have been a disappointment for many enterprises – primarily due to very low supplier acceptance using the banks antiquated payment delivery process.
These solutions are simply NOT supplier friendly. Lucrotec entered the industry to address these disappointments. Our relentless focus on eliminating supplier obstacles to payment acceptance has resulted in the highest adoption rates in the industry for virtual card payments. We meet your suppliers where they are today and adapt our solution to fit their preferred delivery methods.
Ours is the first and only solution to focus on the supplier – creating a win-win and resulting in high virtual card acceptance, resulting in accurate, on-time, and highly secure B2B supplier payments.
Request a full briefing on how you can succeed with Lucrotec.