Julie-Anne White isn't going to argue that having a clean vendor master file is more important to a company than generating sales and growing revenue. (Because it isn't.)

But that doesn't mean the financial industry veteran thinks companies should penny pinch by failing to devote resources to vendor management. (Because they shouldn't.)

We interviewed Julie-Anne on the importance of accurate vendor information for our Risky Business podcast.  You can listen to the entire interview here.

"I feel as if I am holding a hand grenade with the pin pulled."

This is an actual quote from one of our customers, before she was a customer.  We hear versions of this all of the time when we speak to prospects. People are scared. 

Check out this helpful article featured in University Business and written by our valued customer, Lisa Doherty, procurement analyst with Texas State University. 

As industry statistics continue to rise around the threat of business payment fraud, Lisa shares best practices for a better vendor management process to mitigate these mounting risks -  targeted more often than not at AP and procurement departments. 

As a one-woman shop with 30,000 vendor relationships to manage, Lisa is well versed in the challenges associated with managing the constant flux of information while balancing internal expectations efficiently.  Relying our business identity platform to automate a manual and often error prone vendor management process as well as executing her own daily tasks, Lisa is confident in the accuracy and reliability of vendor information, critical to safeguarding her organization from fraudulent behavior. 

Check out the full article, “5 tips for a clean (and fraud-free!) vendor master file,” HERE and let us know your tips for better vendor management!

Hopefully, you have already read the highlights from the first part of our absorbing interview with Dave Birch. (You can listen to the podcast here.)

And if you have then by now you know that as one of the industry's top money experts he writes books and advises companies, among his many endeavors. Birch's name and reputation is well established in the field of identity. 

But that doesn't mean he is any different from anyone else who has to go through the exhaustive efforts of proving their identity. As an executive officer of a company that was entitled to some pandemic assistance last year, Birch needed to provide proof of his address in order to facilitate what he referred to as "this ridiculous process."

Our most recent podcast guest, David Birch, had so many insights into the world of identity that we’ve created a two part blog of his highlights. Our conversation was wide-ranging and fascinating, but don’t just take our word for it, you can hear the entire interview here.

Cyber criminals stole more than $28 billion through email fraud from 2016-2020, according to the FBI.  Let that sink in.

We were thrilled to contribute to Informa’s Fraud Intelligence publication with an article to explore how locking down your vendor master can significantly help eliminate the risk of an increasingly costly threat – business payments fraud.

Increasingly savvy fraudsters have noticed and exploited all that is involved with vendor onboarding and maintenance fueling a significant increase in fraud attempts over this past year.

Read the article here.

Yakut Akman has 40 years of experience in financial services, covering a wide range of functions globally, including Operations & Technology, Risk Management, Audit, and Regulatory Compliance.   ​

She recently joined us for our Risky Business Podcast.  Excerpts from that conversation are below.  You can listen to the entire interview here.

Ms. Akman started her career at Citibank Istanbul as an Executive Trainee and then worked in multiple locations gaining extensive global experience. Over time, she excelled in Operations Management as a thought leader and a change agent as the financial markets, and in response, the regulatory expectations grew more complex. Ms. Akman focused on process efficiency and effectiveness while balancing operational risks and controls. She sharpened these skills in Internal Audit overseeing new emerging risks. As a Risk Manager of key businesses, Ms. Akman actively interacted with government agencies around the world. She successfully addressed high-profile, enterprise-wide issues by setting standards, building trust and achieving sustainable results.

David Kurrasch, President of Global Payment Advisors and a Financial Service consultant with decades of experience in the payments industry, recently sat down with us for a lively and far ranging conversation around ACH, banks and payments fraud risk.  Excerpts are below.

Dave Kurrasch, President of Global Payments Advisors, has worked in corporate treasury, banking and consulting for over 40 years. His career started as a cash manager at a large, diversified corporation where he ran the day-to-day cash desk, short term borrowings and investment, and bank relationships. Dave joined Wells Fargo Bank as Vice President and National Sales Manager for the Bank’s Treasury Management Division and later was promoted to Senior Vice President in charge of the Bank’s Treasury Management Product Development and Management operations. Dave and his team were responsible for all product development, risk and fraud management, unit costing and profitability analysis.

After 15 years at Wells Fargo, Dave founded Global Payments Advisors in 1997 and has provided consulting advice and contracting services to banks, corporations, universities, governments and FINTECH start-ups in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. He has deep experience in all facets of treasury management, payments, risk and fraud management and their statutory/regulatory compliance.