Fraud survey: Attacks grow, but prevention not top priority
Kyriba and the UK’s Association of Corporate Treasurers report that treasurers still lack full cash visibility as fraud attacks increase.
Kyriba and the UK’s Association of Corporate Treasurers report that treasurers still lack full cash visibility as fraud attacks increase.
Resource-strapped UK corporate treasurer face a 19% greater risk of fraud than a year ago; while responsibility of liquidity management has increased 17%, according to a newly-released survey.
The Kyriba/Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT) 2016 annual treasury survey also finds that 36% of treasurers continue to use spreadsheets despite error, inefficiencies, and lack of controls.
Key findings of the survey, which canvassed 332 finance and treasury professionals from companies of all sizes and geographies who are members of the ACT, include:
FRAUD
• Sixty-two percent of participants reported had been an actual or attempted target of internal/external fraud (against 43% in 2015).
• Those that had suffered from fraud, identified losses of up to US$2.5m (£1.7m) through single incidences.
EXPANDING TREASURY RESPONSIBILITIES
• Treasurers taking responsibility for group liquidity management, including investment and borrowing has grown from 67% in 2015 to 84% in 2016.
• Half of respondents noted that they provide strategic financial analysis, compared with 39% a year ago, while 30% are acting as counsel to the executive team (24% in 2015).
• In 2015, 70% of respondents were responsible for cash position reporting and forecasting while in 2016, this has increased to 84%.
OPPORTUNITY TO IMPROVE
• Thirty-six percent of companies use spreadsheets, burdening small treasury operations with manual tasks.
• Treasurers are far less confident in their working capital performance: only 47% of participants said that they performed well or extremely well in this area.
The 2016 survey also found that 100% cash visibility still eludes treasurers, less than 60% report having visibility over 80% of global cash.
“The findings …clearly show that chief financial officers (CFOs) and treasurers are embracing treasury technology to become more influential within their organisation,” said John Campbell, vice president (VP) sales northern Europe at Kyriba.