ACH Payments Nine percent of SMBs that use ACH experienced fraudulent ACH transfers during the past 12 months. However, 13 percent are unsure, indicating that the reported incidents of fraud could be higher. Forty percent of SMBs that had this type of fraud learned about it when one of their merchants, suppliers, or vendors contacted them. Another 29 percent received a letter from their FI. Both of these are too slow for the FI to be able to recover stolen funds. Only 33 percent received a call from the FI. While lower than the high rate of fraudulent transactions in the mobile channel, still 44 percent of SMBs report that the fraud resulted in an unauthorized transfer. Twenty three percent ended up having money stolen, which also is lower than other channels. However, 77 percent of the SMBs that lost money did not receive full reimbursement from their FI, which is a significantly higher response than mobile. Thirty-two percent of SMBs in this study lost more than $25,000 as a result of the ACH fraud and seven percent were unable to determine if the fraud was from ACH. SMBs expressed their displeasure by having diminished trust and confidence in the FI’s ability to prevent ACH fraud (33 percent), switching to another bank for primary services (27 percent), or terminating the relationship (11 percent). Wire Transfers Ten percent of SMBs were affected by an unauthorized transfer of funds via wire during the past 12 months. Again, there is enough uncertainty (12 percent) to show that many SMBs may not have the ability to detect fraudulent wire transfers.
Additional findings from the 2012 Business Banking Trust Study include: • SMBs are rapidly increasing their use of online and mobile banking. • Fifty-four percent of businesses now use mobile devices to access online banking, up from 23 percent in 2010. • The proportion of businesses doing all business banking online has more than doubled from nine percent in 2010 to 20 percent in 2012. • Seventy-four percent of SMBs have experienced electronic banking fraud. • Fifty-two percent have been hit by fraud in past 12 months SMBs expect their financial institution to be the expert, but think they’re not doing enough. • Seventy-two percent indicate that they hold the FI primarily accountable for ensuring that their online bank account is secure. • However, only 43 percent say their FI takes appropriate action to limit risky transactions.
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SIGNAL: Vol. 3, Issue 4
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