Why also (semi)-governments choose the IBAN-Name Check Portal
Certainty about the correctness of payments is crucial for governments. Errors or fraud not only cause huge financial damage, they can also damage trust in the government. In this article, we would like to explain to you how more and more semi-governments are preventing this damage with the IBAN-Name Check portal.
Reason 1: prevent fraud through phishing and fake invoices
Reason 1: prevent fraud through phishing and fake invoices
Fraudsters nowadays also like to target (semi-)public authorities. This threat should not be underestimated. Increasingly, we read that (semi-)public authorities also accidentally transfer large sums of money to criminals on the basis of fake invoices.
Due to complex business processes at (semi)-governments, it can sometimes take some time before this type of fraud is noticed. Criminals often use a name of a known supplier, but link it to their own account number (with a different ascription) to which they themselves have access. A simple IBAN-Name Check beforehand can completely prevent this type of fraud.
Reason 2: Make sure benefits and subsidy money go to the right place
Providing a false account number for the payment of benefits or subsidy money is another trick that is unfortunately often used by criminals. The application itself often looks good and the documents submitted seem reliable, so often no alarm bells ring during the assessment.
Then, when no IBAN-Name Check is done at the time of payment, it can happen that an often substantial subsidy amount is transferred to the account of criminals. For example, business subsidies should never be transferred to a private account. The IBAN-Name Check also automatically identifies immediately whether it is a business or private account.
SurePay has already proven in practice on a large scale that the IBAN-Name Check can help prevent subsidy fraud. For example, all payments of Covid19 aid funds in the Netherlands and the UK have been pre-checked with an IBAN-Name Check.
Reason 3: Comply with The Labour Market Fraud (Bogus Schemes) Act
(Semi-)-governments must also pay close attention when paying salaries. This is where fraud can occur, as the salary is transferred to someone else’s account (the fraudster). This is important, because once the money has been transferred, this type of fraud too is almost impossible to solve.
Thereby, under The Labour Market Fraud (Bogus Schemes) Act, governments are obliged to check whether an employee has his or her own bank account. Otherwise, salaries may not be paid. The IBAN-Name Check offers a direct solution for this too.
Reason 4: Dirtectly reduce auditor's risk assessment
To prevent fraud with public money as much as possible, an additional auditor’s review is also implemented. In the audit opinion of local government financial statements, the auditor also reports on fraud risk assessment.
By introducing an IBAN-Name Check in all business processes, the auditor can see that here the risk of fraud in transactions has already been minimised.
Want to know what the IBAN-Name Check Portal can do for your government organisation?
The IBAN-Name Check is now even easier to do with our portal. As a (semi) government institution, you can use the portal, for example, to make the process of creating master data for suppliers more efficient:
➔ You avoid requesting a copy bank statement or bank card for verification when onboarding new customers
➔ You spend less time on manual work
➔ New data can be adjusted directly in the administration and you use the pdf with matching results as evidence for your auditor or accountant
“The SurePay IBAN-Name Check portal is a valuable addition to our business processes. It provides a piece of assurance about the accuracy of our payments with regard to the ascription and associated IBAN. Financial losses are thus kept to a minimum. “By adding the IBAN-Name Check, it is a guarantee not only for internal control but also for the accountant that we are providing our payments to the correct creditor or claimant.”
– Hans van den Hatert, Advisor applications social domain Municipality of Tiel –
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