Corporate Treasurers Receive an “F” for Fraud Prevention, Shows Kyriba / ACT Survey

Many corporate treasurers are in denial about the threat that financial fraud poses for them, according to the 2015 Kyriba / Association of Corporate Treasurers annual treasury survey. The survey of more than 300 treasury and finance professionals revealed that 53% of organisations have experienced attempted fraud (either external or internal), and more than half of these companies have suffered losses as a result of these attempts. Despite this risk, only 11% of treasury professionals view fraud as one of their three most pressing issues for the coming year, while just 6% said that their company’s approach to fraud prevention is “poor.”

The research revealed a broad range of insights into the modern corporate treasury, particularly with an emphasis on areas such as risk and cash forecasting. Almost half of all those polled have risk management as part of their daily role, with an equal number saying it’s one of the three areas where they spend most of their time. Almost 60% of those who responded cited FX as one of their three biggest risk factors. Another common challenge is a lack of visibility into liquidity and forecasts, which – despite being one of the most time-consuming activities performed by the treasury team – is still seen as a key risk factor for 40% of treasuries.

“Given all of the current global geopolitical uncertainty and the ongoing volatility with the euro, it should come as no surprise that FX tops the list of risk factors impacting the treasury team in 2015,” said Martin Taylor, vice president of Northern European sales at Kyriba. “However, it is certainly a concern that fraud does not feature highly on most treasurers’ radars, particularly given the number of high-profile cases that have come to light on both sides of the Atlantic in the past couple of years. While FX volatility can certainly have a dramatic impact on business’ bottom lines, and treasury departments should certainly be devoting resources to minimising the exposure, fraud is an area which is often overlooked until unfortunately it is too late to resolve the issue.”

The full report on the survey can be found online at kyri.ba/ACT2015survey. Please cite Kyriba and the Association of Corporate Treasurers when citing the research, and provide links back to www.kyriba.com.