By International Credit Reports
Treat the changed instruction as its own verification task
A payment-change request can arrive during a legitimate supplier relationship. The supplier may be a real, established company while the instruction still needs independent confirmation. Keep the new details outside the approved payment record until your organization’s verification process is complete.
Record what changed: bank, account name, account number, country, intermediary, or payment procedure. Preserve the request and its timing. If the beneficiary is a different company, ask whether this is a new contracting entity or an arrangement requiring additional documentation and approval.
The FBI advises verifying account and payment-procedure changes with the requester using an independently established channel, and warns that urgency can feature in fraudulent requests. FBI: business email compromise guidance.
Use a payment-change verification log
A useful log shows how the change was checked, not just that somebody replied ‘confirmed’. Follow your organization’s controls on access to payment information and retain only what your process needs.
| Record | Useful detail |
|---|---|
| Request | Date received, sender, invoice or order reference, and stated reason |
| Change | Which fields differ from the approved supplier record |
| Independent contact | Known contact channel used and how it was established |
| Confirmation | Person contacted, time, explanation, and supporting evidence |
| Decision | Approver, result, and status of any unresolved beneficiary mismatch |
Example: familiar email thread, unfamiliar beneficiary
Suppose a message in an existing order thread asks you to pay a new company for ‘group treasury reasons’. Do not treat the familiar thread as the evidence establishing that relationship. Compare the new beneficiary name with the supplier records, contact the established supplier through a separate trusted channel, and refer the arrangement to the person authorized to approve it.
A report on the proposed beneficiary might help identify that business if company research is needed. It cannot prove that this particular payment instruction is authorized. Keep those two conclusions separate in the approval record so a successful company match is not mistaken for payment validation.
Connect the outcome to the supplier file
When the change is resolved, retain the explanation with the supplier record and update your systems only through the approved process. If the company itself has changed, revisit which legal entity your contract, purchase order, and existing credit information describe.
If a payment has already been sent and you suspect the instruction was fraudulent, contact your financial institution promptly and use the relevant reporting process. Do not wait for a new company report to investigate a potentially misdirected payment. The immediate payment issue and a later supplier review have different purposes.
Research a newly named company when needed
If the request introduces a different business, clarify its identity and the specific question a report should answer.