Small business lenders are at the intersection of profitable growth and problematic fraud risks. Small and midsized business fraud is hitting this market with great fury and frequency.
Many factors are converging to create an ideal climate for fraud.
Types of Attacks
With financial institutions successfully adopting effective methods to fight consumer lending fraud, fraudsters are moving on to small business lending fraud, whether it be through fake identities, synthetic identities, cyberattacks on account creation or identity spoofing for account takeover on existing accounts. Digital lenders are targeted by various types of lending fraud more often than others.
Cyberattacks on new small business account creations have grown 35% in the last six months and identity spoofing has grown 20%. Cybercriminals are creating fraudulent bank accounts or taking over existing accounts, which can be used to take out multiple loans. These risks are greater through the mobile channel, which experienced a 107% growth in account takeover attacks in the last six months.
This environment creates sizeable opportunities and advantages for fraudsters, and this complicates fraud defense strategies for lenders.
Lenders Fight Back
Notably, organizations that reported being stronger at identifying SMB lending fraud actually are more effective. Not only have these organizations largely prevented fraud increases over the past two years, but they also experience a lower level of fraud – 3.0% of annual revenues, compared to 5.0% for those organizations which have reported only being somewhat effective. More successful firms tend to be more effective at stopping fraud at the point of account origination or within the first month of the customer relationship using tools like business and consumer fraud analytics and SMB consortium information, to provide a more holistic view of the SMB entity and the individuals behind it.
A precise, multi-layered technology approach can strengthen fraud prevention.
About the Study
The study surveyed 134 individuals with responsibility for making risk and fraud assessments or decisions for SMB customers and set out to better understand SMB lending fraud, specifically its volume, how it is being identified and tracked, the types of fraud experienced, what’s being done to combat it and if there are differences in SMB lending fraud based on the size or type of organization
LexisNexis® Risk Solutions can help you design a multi-layered fraud defense that balances critical business objectives with an optimal fraud prevention strategy.
This information is for educational purposes only and does not guarantee the functionality or features of LexisNexis products identified. LexisNexis does not warrant this content is complete or error-free.
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