B2B CFOs incorporate fraud controls into their cash flow strategy
Tradition is tradition. Traditionally, in many financial organizations, fraud protection has been in the same mental bucket as insurance premiums and audit fees. Something necessary, prudent and fundamentally defensive.
But as B2B payments accelerate their shift toward digital trajectories such as ACH, virtual cards, real-time payments, cross-border platforms and even stablecoins, this framework is beginning to look outdated.
Unlike consumer fraud, which attracts headlines and the attention of regulators, B2B fraud often occurs behind the scenes. Business email compromises, vendor impersonation schemes, account takeovers, and invoice manipulation rarely result in serious one-day losses. Instead, over time, they can weaken profitability, distort financials and complicate forecasts.
For CFOs, these losses can impact where they are most severe: operating margins and cash flow predictability.
In today's operating context of tight capital, unstable supply chains and heightened cyber risks, CFOs are turning to fraud control tools to protect revenue, prevent profit leakage and stabilize cash flow.
See also: Why businesses are replacing checks with virtual cards and ACH
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The erosion of hidden profits in B2B payments
Digitization has changed the calculation of B2B payment fraud and its prevention. As payment volumes increase and processes scale, small percentage improvements in fraud prevention can translate into significant financial protection.
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The same technology enables faster settlements and wider supplier networks, but also creates a consumption of data — transaction history, behavioral pattern network signals — that can be leveraged to proactively defend profits.
Instead of asking, “How much should we spend to be compliant?” CFOs ask, “What is the expected risk of loss in our payment process? How does it compare to the cost of advanced controls?” That’s a fundamentally different question. It assumes that fraud risk can be quantified and managed through strategic investments.
The State of Fraud and Financial Crime in the U.S. 2025 report, produced by PYMNTS Intelligence in partnership with Block, found that nearly seven in 10 financial institutions have increased spending on fraud detection year over year, and 46% said fraud schemes have become more sophisticated. As businesses increasingly view fraud technology as core infrastructure rather than optional upgrades, cost is no longer a barrier to investment.
In the emergency framework, fraud controls are assessed alongside working capital optimization and procurement savings initiatives. A new authentication layer or AI-based anomaly detection system must be evaluated not only for its price tag, but also for its potential to reduce expected losses, lower insurance premiums and improve audit outcomes. In this case, the discussion can shift from cost control to value preservation.
See also: How Artificial Intelligence Can Enhance Tools CFOs Already Trust
Protecting revenue in the platform economy
As B2B commerce becomes increasingly platform-based, companies must not only manage internal payment flows; They are curating an ecosystem of buyers, suppliers and partners. In these environments, trust is currency.
The digitization of B2B payments has created vast amounts of data that can be turned into defensive moats. Transaction history reveals patterns in vendor behavior, while time and frequency signals can flag anomalies and network-level insights can identify suspicious clusters before losses occur.
However, extracting value from this data requires a thoughtful strategy. CFOs are increasingly working with CIOs and data science teams to ensure payments data is structured, accessible and analyzable.
When these systems are well designed, they do more than just stop fraudulent transactions. They exposed process inefficiencies, duplicate payments and policy violations that also eroded profit margins. The same analysis that detects external threats can uncover internal leaks.
The latest PYMNTS Intelligence report, “From Experiment to Imperative: U.S. Product Leaders Betting on Gen AI,” captures this key point well. 87% of product leaders now expect AI to improve fraud detection, 85% predict better regulatory compliance, and 83% predict stronger data security.
This will only become more important. As the role of the CFO continues to evolve, so do the metrics that define success. Beyond earnings per share and free cash flow, there is an increasing focus on resilience, or an organization's ability to absorb shocks without deviating from strategy.
When fraud protection is designed as a financial strategy, it does more than just reduce risk. It protects profits, stabilizes cash and strengthens the foundation for growth.
