Three reasons why you should be checking the bank account data of your customers and suppliers.
There are many reasons why you might be paying other companies, particularly if you are a bank, financial services or insurance company. The kinds of payments you might make to your customers can include business loans, insurance claim settlements and even rebates.
By verifying the link between your customer or supplier and their bank account you can be sure that you are only making payments to legitimate beneficiaries. This will reduce your risk of fraud and ensure that only genuine customers or suppliers receive the payments expected.
It’s now possible to check the ownership of business bank accounts through Creditsafe, therefore, we have put together these three reasons why you should be checking the bank details of your customers and suppliers.
1. Minimise the risk of invoice fraud
Invoice fraud occurs when a fraudster pretends to be a supplier and submits an invoice that is fraudulent or sends you a letter asking you to change the bank account details you hold for a genuine supplier. In both cases, the bank account data they provide will be for a fraudster rather than for your genuine supplier. By checking that bank account data submitted belongs to your supplier you will be able to quickly and easily spot such attempts at fraud and make sure your business does not become a victim.
2. Streamline your account set-up process
Setting up new customers and suppliers on your systems can often be a burden. Ensuring you collect the correct bank account details can be extremely important if you plan on transferring funds. Checking bank account data takes time and is often prone to mistakes. By electronically validating business bank accounts, you can quickly and reliably confirm bank account ownership, improve the set-up process and reduce costly errors.
3. Avoid costly payment errors
When setting up business-to-business payments, bank account details have to be entered into your systems – sometimes multiple times. It’s very easy to mishear or incorrectly enter numerical data. When this happens and a payment is submitted it can be costly. You may incur penalties and you will have to spend time finding the correct information and updating your systems. Additionally, your customer may have to wait longer for payment which can damage your relationship with them. By checking business bank account data at the point of entry you will be able to identify any errors as early as possible – before payment is submitted and a cost is incurred.
Electronically verifying the ownership of UK business bank accounts is a new approach that can revolutionise how you set up and pay your business customers and suppliers as well as protect you from significant losses.
You can find out more about our business bank verification tools and request a free trial here: www.creditsafe.com/bank-verification
Start verifying business bank account details
Quickly check the bank account details you hold belong to the right business using our bank verification tool. Enter a business bank account number and receive instant confirmation it belongs to the correct company.