Highlights from the ACFE's 2022 Anti-Fraud Technology Report

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, in partnership with the analytics firm SAS, recently released the "2022 Anti-Fraud Technology Benchmarking Report." The report discusses the findings of a 20-question survey that was sent to 80,011 ACFE members and follows up on an earlier benchmarking report issued in 2019. 

The report allows organizations to compare their current and future anti-fraud technology programs to their industry and region and assists with spending and training decisions within an organization.  

The report provides several valuable insights, including: 

• 43% of organizations increased their use of data analytics in response to Covid-19.
• Consistent with the 2019 report, the 2022 report again found that disbursements and purchasing are the two most common areas where data analytics are used to monitor potential fraud. In addition, data analytics are utilized to monitor a wide range of other risk areas including travel and entertainment expense fraud, fraud involving customer payments and financial reporting fraud. 
• The most common anti-fraud data analysis techniques used by organizations include exception reporting, automated red flags and data visualization. 
• The survey asked which programs are used for the various analytical techniques and Excel and was listed for each of the three anti-fraud techniques mentioned above. IDEA, ACL / Galvanize, SAS and programs developed "in-house" were also represented multiple times for the same three anti-fraud techniques, with Tableau, Power BI and SAP each listed once. 
• Budgets and financial constraints are the biggest perceived challenges for organizations implementing anti-fraud technologies, with 78% of organizations listing these issues as a major or moderate challenge.

The main takeaway I had from the report is that while Excel is a great tool, the frequency of its use in anti-fraud controls may speak to the level of sophistication (or lack thereof) of the anti-fraud programs in place at the survey respondent's organizations. Despite the near-term challenge of budgetary constraints, the report demonstrates an opportunity for increased training and investment in more advanced data analytics tools which often result in long-term savings.  

Schneider Downs has years of experience with the technology tools listed in the report and has helped many organizations develop anti-fraud programs that address their unique needs to monitor and respond to fraud risks. If you have questions or concerns, contact Tom Pratt or Brian Webster.