Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Ninety-three per cent of small and medium-sized businesses are unable to recover more than half their losses caused by SME fraud.
And 45pc of businesses surveyed for the latest Bottomline Technologies payments survey said they have been hit by fraud within the last 12 months.
The average financial loss caused by fraud sits at £240,092, with the majority of fraud losses anything between £50,000 and £250,000.
Nearly half (47pc) of businesses only ever recover 20pc of their losses.
Cyber-fraud gives finance directors and accounts staff the most concern, with 78pc of respondents to Bottomline saying they are concerned “a fair amount” or “a great deal” about an external cyber attack impacting their business.
Over two thirds of financial decision makers (68pc) are worried about being tricked into making a fraudulent payment and one in six are worried about being defrauded from inside the company.
More than half of financial decision-makers say they are unaware of new industry initiatives to prevent fraud such as Open Banking, which gives companies the same kind of access and oversight of business transactions as retail customers expect of current accounts. Only 17pc of financial staff say they are ready to embrace Open Banking.
Nigel Savory,

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