Fraud Prevention Center

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An Integrated Approach to Prevention

Fraud prevention should be an integral part of every company’s business strategy. It’s not just about stopping the bad guys; it’s about enabling your business to grow and evolve without unwanted — and costly — interruptions. Silicon Valley Bank offers preventive tools, services and guidance to help you mitigate your risk of fraud.
Structure Accounts to Minimize Risk
Segregate and reconcile accounts to help safeguard your business
Learn more
Optimize Company Operations
Tips for lowering risk of internal fraud
Learn more
Consumer Best Practices
Steps you can take to help protect yourself and your family
Learn more

Explore fraud prevention insights

Blog | Fraud Prevention Making the most of ISO 20022 Learn the significance of adopting ISO 20022 on the future of data management and payment innovation and how SVB solutions align with industry standards. Read now
Blog | Fraud Prevention Protecting Yourself from Holiday Cyber Scams SVB’s Rob Zerby shares his top tips to stay cybersafe this holiday season. Read now
Blog | Fraud Prevention Fraud on the rise: How increased awareness can keep you protected SVB's Rob Zerby shares insights into how to protect yourself from increasing account takeover threats. Read now
Blog | Fraud Prevention Defend Your Company from Business Email Compromise (BEC) Fraudsters are using increasingly sophisticated strategies to scam companies via email. Here's how you can protect against this dangerous—and pervasive—threat. Read now
Blog | Fraud Prevention High profile? High net-worth? You’re at Special Risk for Fraud High net-worth individuals are 35% more likely to be victims of fraud. What types of fraud should wealthy families worry about? Comment frauds are described. Fraud prevention measures are explained. Newly wealthy families might need to change their habits and behavior around how they handle their money to avoid fraud. Practical and usable fraud advice. Read now
Blog | Fraud Prevention Coronavirus and fraud: What you need to know Coronavirus and fraud: What you need to know Read now
Blog | Fraud Prevention FBI Warning: What you don’t know about cloud-based email fraud can hurt you The cybersecurity landscape is continually evolving, and fraudsters are constantly devising new tricks to defraud businesses. Read now
Blog | Fraud Prevention Q&A with fraud prevention consultant Brett Johnson "Cyber criminals rely on your complacency to commit fraud," says Brett Johnson, former most wanted cybercriminal, now fraud advisor, In this Q&A, Brett answers to questions posed during SVB's Fraud Prevention Webcast: Confessions of a Fraudster. Read now
Blog | Fraud Prevention Protect your assets from fraud: Tips from a former cybercriminal How to think from the fraudster’s point of view to help protect you from fraud. Read now

Structure accounts to minimize risk

Segregate and reconcile accounts to help safeguard your business

Protect your business assets by strategically structuring your company banking accounts to minimize the risk of fraud and theft. Preventative measures and ongoing monitoring of account activity allow you to identify fraudulent activity before it’s too late. Our experienced team can help minimize your risk of fraud by working with you to establish sound practices including account segregation and daily account monitoring.

Structure accounts to minimize risk

Segregate accounts to reduce fraud

A treasury best practice to minimize fraud is segregating payment and transaction activities across multiple accounts. By designating separate bank accounts for payments to vendors and receipts from customers, for example, you avoid disruption to your revenue stream in the event your payments account is compromised. Segregation also helps limit accounts to discrete company functions, allowing you to limit the number of employees with access to any one account, and making suspicious transactions easier to identify.

Some best practices for account segregation include: 

  • Segregate accounts by account type (payables and receivables).
  • Segregate accounts by payment method (ACH, check, wire).
  • Segregate accounts by purpose or function (payroll, operations).
  • Set appropriate permissions or entitlements on accounts.

Reconcile accounts to maximize oversight

Account review and formal reconciliation can help streamline operations and reduce your exposure to errors and check fraud. Best practice recommends that you monitor and review accounts daily through either a manual process or an automated solution. At a minimum, monthly reconciliations are recommended to limit irregularities and ensure accounts are kept current.

The following are additional account best practices: 

  • Move excess cash from operating accounts to investment accounts, minimizing the amount of cash subject to payments fraud.
  • Use positive pay account services such as Fraud Control Services to secure check payments.
  • Outsource check printing and institute proper check stock controls.
  • Enable alerts of outgoing account transactions.

Optimize company operations

Tips for lowering risk of internal fraud

Internal processes and controls form the backbone of a secure organization, and establishing them early can ensure your company accelerates and grows with as little friction as possible. Building and communicating companywide policies and best practices can lower your risk of internal fraud, stolen funds or intellectual property, and loss of data from compromised systems.

Optimize company operations

Segregation of duties

When you involve several people in the lifespan of a single transaction, from initiation to settlement and reporting, you minimize your risk of fraud or human error. Basically, you ensure that no single person is in a position to both commit and conceal fraud or errors. Even a small company should assign different individuals to perform the front- and back-office processes for a given transaction.

Some best practices for segregation of duties include: 

  • Formalize internal processes to ensure appropriate checks and balances.
  • Separate roles for initiation and approval of payments.
  • Separate accounting team.
  • Set up discrete account and security access.

Accounts payable controls

To minimize fraud, we recommend setting up strong employee controls and vendor master file access policies in accounts payable. Ensuring your employees follow established practices minimizes the risk that your company loses funds in imposter or accounts payable fraud events.

The following are additional accounts payable best practices: 

  • Employ out-of-band authentication to secure account access and payments approvals.
  • Limit who can add new vendors or edit the master vendor file.
  • Segregate duties so one person isn’t handling billing, payment processing and check signing.
  • Require a W-9 form from every vendor before their first invoice is paid.