Study Finds Payment Certainty Becomes the New Fraud Strategy

Fraud prevention in B2B payments has long operated on a simple premise: if something went wrong, there would be time to fix it.

That is changing. Real-time payments, faster settlement and digital commerce are shrinking decision windows. Finance teams are shifting from fraud recovery to fraud prevention.

Findings in a new PYMNTS Data Book, “How Bank-Linked Verification Cuts AR Payment Risk,” a PYMNTS Intelligence 2026 Certainty Project report with Plaid, reveal that 86% of firms that catch problems before settlement use step-up authentication for high-risk transactions.

The goal is not just to process payments. It is to trust them before they move.

Once money moves, recovery gets harder. Once a fraudulent payment settles, the cost of fixing it rises sharply. Much of the innovation driving B2B payments forward has focused on speed. The report found that firms are now investing in tools that assess whether a payment should be trusted before funds leave an account.

That shift changes the economics of fraud prevention.

The Cost of Finding Problems Too Late

The core challenge for businesses is not just fraud. It is doubt. Accounts receivable (AR) teams face constant questions: Is this account valid? Will this payment clear? Is this request real?

Historically, those questions were answered after settlement, when options for action were limited. That made sense in a slower payments environment. Transactions moved at a pace that allowed manual review. Verification happened during onboarding or periodic check-ins.

Fraud prevention mattered, but the focus was on limiting losses after problems appeared. The goal was to move funds from one account to another, accurately and efficiently.

Today, that model is breaking down. Verification is becoming a continuous activity built into payment workflows. Organizations now want confirmation that an account exists, that ownership matches expected records and that transaction patterns look normal — all before a payment goes through.

Read the report: How Bank-Linked Verification Cuts AR Payment Risk

As settlement times shrink, businesses have less room for doubt. Every payment must be assessed quickly, often in real time. That pressure is driving adoption of tools that evaluate risk before settlement, not after.

Many of those tools originated in consumer payments. Banks, card networks and eCommerce platforms faced high volumes of fraud and built tools to flag suspicious behavior without slowing down legitimate transactions.

Step-up authentication was one of the most effective approaches. Rather than requiring extra verification for every transaction, institutions added friction only when a payment showed elevated risk — an unusual amount, a new device or an unfamiliar location.

Building Payment Certainty Before Funds Move

That same approach is now moving into commercial payments. Businesses face a version of the same problem consumer payment providers solved years ago. They need stronger fraud controls. But they cannot add friction to every transaction without slowing routine business activity.

The result is growing adoption of risk-based verification. Additional checks apply to high-risk payments, not all payments. What began as a consumer fraud strategy is becoming a core enterprise risk tool.

The shift reflects a simple reality. Real-time payments and more advanced fraud threats mean businesses can no longer rely on controls built for slower systems. In the next phase of payments, the most valuable capability may not be moving money faster. It may be knowing, with confidence, when not to move it at all.

The most effective organizations are moving fraud prevention upstream — building verification into payment workflows and seeking greater certainty before transactions occur.