Esker, a global cloud platform and leader in AI-driven process automation solutions for finance and customer service functions, today announced the availability of new functionalities within its Procure-to-Pay solution to fight against bank transfer fraud, integrating the technologies of the French Lyon-based FinTech Sis ID.

The fight against cybercrime and bank transfer fraud
According to recent industry reports, 31% of companies experience at least one cyberattack per day¹ and 47% have been victims of fraud in the last 24 months². Similar numbers over the past few years demonstrate the adaptability and resilience of fraudsters, who maintain consistent pressure on businesses and their cashflow. The pandemic and widespread remote working have led to increased cybercrime, specifically in bank transfer fraud. Cybercrime damage costs are predicted to hit 6 trillion dollars annually 2021³.

“Companies are looking for automated solutions that can secure payment while eliminating time-consuming and error-prone manual verification, particularly in today’s context of increased cyber threats,” said Laurent Sarrat, CEO at Sis ID. “It’s better to prevent than treat, as the cost of a fraud operation can be very high. For nearly 1 in 3 companies, the damage can be more than 10 thousand euros⁴. This can seriously and sometimes permanently weaken a company’s cashflow, even jeopardise their business.”

A meaningful alliance between two leading players in Lyon’s tech industry
Fully integrated with Esker’s Procure-to-Pay automation suite and already available in France and Europe and rapidly expanding globally, the addition of Sis ID’s anti-fraud solution goes hand-in-hand with Esker’s goal of building a complete and agile automation platform. As a result, customers are provided a seamless experience through a single, scalable interface, bringing together the best expertise and technologies on the market. This approach allows Esker to build a secure customer/supplier relationship with a high level of automation and traceability at every step of the P2P process.

In an effort to support companies in their fight against authorised push payment (APP) fraud, Sis ID technology is directly integrated into the new supplier registration process. Customers contract directly with Sis ID and simply provide their credentials to Esker in order to connect the two solutions and enable automatic verification of a company’s identity and bank details on Sis ID’s platform in seconds. By pooling and anonymising payment histories, Sis ID delivers real-time alerts in the event of fraud risks. The collective platform certifies bank transactions thanks to its network of more than 10,000 companies. This validation process is repeated with each request for a change of bank details to validate its full legitimacy.

“We naturally approached Sis ID because of our shared core values, our respective technological footprints in Lyon and because it was fast and easy to integrate their API and implement their solution within our ecosystem,” said Catherine Dupuy-Holdich, Senior Product Manager at Esker. “Payment fraud is expected to continue increasing and projected to cost over 40 billion dollars in 2027⁵, so it was essential to address the problem by enriching our P2P solution. This partnership is in line with Esker’s strategy to expand its payment offering. The growing demand for security and automation will help us accelerate our developments around AI and multiply our alliances with other FinTechs by the end of the year.”

Read full press release here.

1. Acronis Cyber Readiness Report 2020. (https://dl.acronis.com/u/rc/WP_Acronis_Cyber_Readiness_Report_EN-US_200908.pdf)
2. PWC’s Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2020 (https://www.pwc.fr/fr/publications/securite/economic-crime-survey-2020.html)
3. Cybersecurity Ventures (https://cybersecurityventures.com/top-5-cybersecurity-facts-figures-predictions-and-statistics-for-2019-to-2021/)
4. Euler Hermès DFCG 2020 (https://www.eulerhermes.fr/actualites/etude-fraude-2020.html)
5. Global Payment Fraud Statistics, Trends & Forecasts (www.merchantsavvy.co.uk/payment-fraud-statistics/)

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