Whether your company’s bank is one of the big nationals or a small regional one, the financial crisis they face is bad news for your Accounting processes. You can’t open a newspaper without hearing about another bank laying off workers and watching its stock price drop another 5%. That bad news isn’t limited to those directly impacted. All the changes banks and related finance companies are going through right now will have a real effect on how you interact with your own bank.

Smart Money identified three trouble areas you’ll want to keep an eye on — and ways to make sure you can minimize their disruption in Accounting:

1. Increased fees – Banks are hurting and to make up lost revenue, you can expect them to add new fees and hike existing ones. Worse, because several foundering banks — large and small — have been bought up by those that remain, there’s less competition for your business. So if you do face onerous hikes your company will have less leverage to negotiate a better deal with either your current bank or another. Action step: Review procedures to see if any small changes can help you minimize the effect of higher fees. One example: Eliminating a check run a month by switching to direct deposit for employee reimbursements.
2. More scam attempts – Disgruntled ex-employees, cash-strapped workers and plain-old-fashioned desperate con artists are likely to increase their attempts to part your company and its hard-earned money. Most banks are reporting an increase in the number of cases of phishing attempts. There are also reports that more confidential account info has leaked. Action step: Most scams can be prevented with procedures you already have in place. More than ever, it’s time to be vigilant. Make sure any relevant staffers (in or out of Accounting) know the red flags — and how to handle them.
3. Reduced security — Having laid off staff and outsourced some important functions like IT, bank security isn’t at its strongest right now. Action step: There’s not much you can do to clean up your bank’s procedures. But you can be extra careful when reviewing account statements. Reconcile statements at the first chance you get. If the worst happens and you are a victim of fraud, getting an early jump on it is the best way to ensure you not only nip it in the bud, but also get your money back.

Tags: Banking, Best practices, Economic outloook, Internal controls, Security