For CFOs, security is paramount in payments solutions or platforms

Asia/Oceana revealed that for this group, security is paramount in payments solutions or platforms. Security—both of information and settlements—is raised by executives as a concern in multiple aspects of payments processing. In fact, according to those surveyed, security of transactions is the single most important attribute of payments.

More than half of American executives (53%) and almost half of the European executives polled (49%) “strongly agree” that they are very concerned about information security relating to payments. In stark contrast, 26% of the Asian executives surveyed answered that they “strongly agree.” Still, between 58% and 68% of respondents from all regions rated security of transactions as the most important attribute of a payments solution.

CFOs in all regions anticipate that new technology will impact their business when it comes to security: namely, more secure payments (62%) and faster and more secure cross-border payments (57%).
In the US the concern about information security (52% “strongly agree” that they are very concerned) is aligned with the incidence of payments fraud or misuse: 52% have experienced one or the other in the past six months. In Asia, just 26% of the executives we questioned express the same level of concern—which makes senses, since only 24% have experienced fraud or misuse in the same period.

Financial services executives have high expectations of payments providers when it comes to security. Across the board, there is agreement that security of transactions is the most important attribute of payments for their business, with 62% ranking it “very important.” When selecting a payments provider, the Asia/Oceania executives surveyed strongly valued security of a provider’s systems and transactions (though it was second to cost/fee structure in impacting their choices).

The cloud is now, and CFOs think blockchain may be the future. Almost all of those surveyed (92%) indicate that their business is currently using cloud-based payments platforms. A full 84% trust cloud-based systems more than locally hosted ERP/AP systems to keep account payables secure. Surveyed executives are very optimistic regarding the effect of blockchain on their own businesses, expecting the technology to pave the way for more secure payments.

WEX commissioned Zogby Analytics to conduct an online survey of CFOs and senior financial executives in the US, Europe and Asia/Oceania. From April 13 to April 24, 2018, 501 CFOs and senior financial executives from the US, 206 from Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia (combined), and 207 from France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. (combined) completed the survey.