Most payment fraud does not break into a bank. It persuades one person inside a business to send money to the wrong place: a convincing email from a "supplier" with new bank details, or an urgent request that appears to come from a director.
A second approver turns that single point of failure into two.
What two-person approval stops
- Changed bank details. The approver sees the payee and account before any money moves, and can call the supplier on a known number.
- Urgent requests from "the boss". An approver who was not part of the conversation is far harder to rush.
- Honest mistakes. A misplaced digit in an amount is easy to miss when you typed it, and easy to spot when someone else reads it.
- Insider risk. Nobody can send a payment alone, including the person who set the payment up.
Keeping it fast
Approval should be a decision, not a chore. A few habits help:
- Approve on the phone. Approvers should be able to review a payout and decide from wherever they are.
- Show everything needed to decide. Payee, amount, rail, reference and who requested it, on one screen.
- Notify the right people at once. A payout waiting for approval should reach the approvers immediately, not in a weekly review.
- Set sensible thresholds. Payments between the business's own accounts carry less risk than payments to vendors, so they can need approval only above a limit.
How Business Globalizer Bank does it
Every payout to a vendor waits for a second owner or admin, and the person who requested a payout can never approve it. Payouts to the business's own accounts need approval once they reach a limit within 24 hours. Approvers get a notification on their phone when a payout is waiting, and approve it after confirming their password.