Weak Controls Turn Suppliers Into Hidden Cost Centres

Supplier fraud can turn routine vendor administration into a material drain on earnings, even when invoices and payment instructions appear legitimate. Olivier Cornet, UK Country Manager at SixthFin, argues that manual bank-detail changes, email-based approvals and weak segregation of duties create openings for insiders and external accomplices. The risk sits upstream of payment execution: once an IBAN is altered in the vendor master file, otherwise valid invoices can silently route cash to criminals.

In a case published by The Fintech Times on April 28, 2026, an unnamed company used an ERP migration to reconfirm supplier bank details at scale. A fraudster impersonated a major supplier and changed its IBAN; the company then sent several payments to fraudulent accounts before the genuine vendor’s collection requests exposed the scheme. The article did not disclose a cash amount but put the loss at 3% of turnover. Cornet recommended automated checks on recently changed IBANs, continuous reconciliation and a comprehensive audit trail.