What are the most effective treasury controls and policies to prevent fraud and errors?

This all can be achieved through strong governance structure. Most critical would be segregation of authorizations. Followed by automation. This can be achieved through integration of internal ERP with banks. Reconciliations on regular basis and should be segregated from treasury to avoid any conflict of interest. Policies and processes should be documented.

Also, Dual Control/Authorization for money movement is critical to help reduce fraud. For example, you can set it up to where one member of your team and initiates wire transfer, then another member of your team must review and approve the transaction before it is authorized. Find a bank that enables this effortlessly through their mobile app.

I would add, segregation on Treasury transactions, since having to do with Cash (which is king!) should most of the times be approved by upper management as part of an official BoD decision to stress also the importance but also to provide clear roles! Having also the view of an Internal Audit / Process Control dpt is also welcomed!

To combat fraud and errors in treasury operations, implementing robust fraud filters is essential. Here are key strategies: Real-Time Monitoring: Use analytics to flag suspicious transactions instantly. Multi-Layered Approvals: Require multiple authorizations for ACH, check, and wire transfers. Threshold Alerts: Set alerts for transactions over predefined amounts. Account Verification: Confirm new payees to mitigate risks. Regular Audits: Conduct routine checks to identify anomalies. Employee Training: Educate staff on fraud schemes and reporting. By integrating these controls, organizations can safeguard their financial assets and enhance operational integrity. Let’s prioritize fraud prevention! ????

Strong controls on Bank recons on a daily basis, develop and implementation levels of authority in the treasury department, real time reporting of cash management by integrating with software.

In this part the role of Treasury softwares is of additional value whereas best practices and frequent monitoring is of high importance!

Some other services that will help: - Positive Pay - helpful for companies that send paper checks. This sends a visual image of the check to the bank, then the image is reconciled by the bank when the other party attempts to cash the check. - Ghost Accounts - these are temporary/one time use accounts for electronically sending payments. This protects your primary operating account from ACH fraud. - Company Credit Card Restrictions - a good corporate card program should allow users to set limits on where cards can be used. Meaning, the company can prevent company cards from being used at certain locations.

Le diagnostic préalable comme outil de prévention au service de la performance. Mieux vaut anticiper, en effet, pour être capable de corriger les erreurs avant que celle-ci ne soit révélée par un contr?le de l'administration fiscale. La mise en ?uvre d'outils d'intelligence artificielle par les services de contr?le fiscal permet une détection de plus en plus automatique des erreurs et anomalies. Mieux vaut être préparé ! En plus l'administration fiscale est favorable à la régularisation de manière spontanée, ce qui permet de diminuer les pénalités qui seraient appliquées en l'absence de régularisation.

A very good complement to internal audits is to create an assurance testing team that will validate risks for the Treasury organization including payments. Subsequently, the process owner working in tandem with the assurance team can ensure the risks are mitigated in line with the companies risk appetite.

On training part I would also add connecting to counterparts from other organisations such as Specialized Association (Treasury Associations) which assists on spreading knowledge and applying best practices.

Many bank offered treasury products can reduce risk within a company. Products such as Positive Pay question and verify all outgoing ACH and check payments. It is important to also have dual approval on your accounts so a trusted employee can verify the originated transactions. Simple steps like these can save you big in the long run!

As per the last decades revolution of technology, Treasury is also more and more digitalised! This firstly, central security of the Company’s systems is imperative (digital/technology/IT is the wave breaker and guard). Second and utmost is training to users which should be continuous both in systems but also on security. Technology is also necessary to analyse vast amount of data and avoid unnecessary charges, mistakes etc.

The bank connectivity channel used to initiate payments is exceedingly important. Premium Banking APIs stand out for their robust security measures. At the core of the security framework lies mutual authentication, a process where both the company and the financial institution verify each other's identities through a sophisticated certificate exchange. In addition, APIs use the latest encryption techniques, the encryption methods ensures that sensitive financial information remains secure whilst travelling over the API channel between both parties. These security protocols are much needed when thinking about fraud prevention and ensuring data confidentiality.

You may have the best policy and process in place, but if the employees are not aware of it or are not following it, it's not worth a lot. Compliance with the policies is important in order to notice issues early and be in a position to resolve them. While it can be done manually, it will result in infrequent checks with potential gaps due to human errors, omission, or even collusion. It is important to employ continuous monitoring solutions using automation, visualization, and flagging of potential issues that need to be looked at. Using these tools removes the need for manual interventions, thus reducing the operational risks, allowing to increase the frequency to be near real-time, as well as remove the manual task from employees.