How treasurers are becoming data protectors
A data mountain that grows every day means more opportunities for cyber criminals. How do you manage your risk? With intelligent data management processes and technologies and investment in new skills.
Using data to protect your data
For treasurers, the data explosion means increasing availability of different types of data, both structured and unstructured, plus more sophisticated tools for dealing with it. Technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) are now widely used to find patterns that point to potential errors and fraud. These innovations have been supported by improvements in computing and data engineering over the last few years.
Tech innovation grabs the headlines, but we’re finding that new ways to use existing tools are also playing their part. Joan Gelpi, Head of Data & AI of Bank of America’s Global Transaction Services, notes that, “Clients are using APIs to link treasury systems with managed bank accounts data, ensuring a more real-time reflection of transactions and authorized individuals.” Similarly, regression analysis is being used to spot fraudulent commercial card or wire payments, and Natural Language Processing (NLP) is allowing treasurers to process non-structured data more effectively. Treasurers are also adopting tech from other business areas, including data science tools and data visualization tools. These can be useful in helping monitor real-time processes and flows of data through the organization, allowing for more proactive methods of fraud prevention and risk management.
While harnessing technology is undoubtedly important, companies should not overlook process management and structured workflows. AI and machine learning can be helpful, but processing data on a real-time basis oſten adds more in terms of fraud prevention. More companies are now continuously monitoring data, not only to look for fraud patterns but to apply controls that reduce errors.