CFOs Turn Fraud Control Into Margin Defense

Tradition is as tradition does. And traditionally, in many finance organizations, fraud protection has lived in the same mental bucket as insurance premiums and audit fees; something necessary, prudent and fundamentally defensive.

But as B2B payments accelerate their shift to digital rails across ACH, virtual cards, real-time payments, cross-border platforms and even stablecoins, that framing is starting to look outdated.

Unlike consumer fraud, which commands headlines and regulatory attention, B2B fraud often unfolds in the background. Business email compromise, vendor impersonation schemes, account takeovers and invoice manipulation rarely produce dramatic one-day losses. Instead, they chip away at profitability over time, distorting financials and complicating forecasting.

For CFOs, these losses can hit where it hurts most: across their operating margins and cash flow predictability.

Against today’s operational backdrop of tight capital, volatile supply chains and heightened cyber risk, CFOs are turning to fraud control tools to preserve revenue, prevent profit leakage and stabilize cash flow.

See also: Why Businesses Are Replacing Checks With Virtual Cards and ACH

The Hidden Margin Erosion in B2B Payments

Digitization has changed the calculus around both B2B payments fraud and its prevention. As payment volumes increase and processes scale, small percentage improvements in fraud prevention can translate into significant dollar preservation.

The same technology that enables faster settlement and broader supplier networks also creates data exhaust—transaction histories, behavioral patterns network signals—that can be harnessed to proactively defend margins.

Instead of asking, “How much should we spend to be compliant?” CFOs are asking, “What is the expected loss exposure across our payment flows, and how does that compare to the cost of advanced controls?” This is a fundamentally different question. It assumes that fraud risk is quantifiable and manageable through strategic investment.

The “2025 State of Fraud and Financial Crime in the United States” report from PYMNTS Intelligence, produced in collaboration with Block, found that nearly 7 in 10 financial institutions increased fraud-detection spending year over year, and 46% report that fraud schemes have become more sophisticated. Cost is becoming less of a barrier to investment, as firms increasingly view fraud technology as core infrastructure rather than an optional upgrade.

In emergent frameworks, fraud controls are evaluated alongside working capital optimization and procurement savings initiatives. A new authentication layer or AI-based anomaly detection system is assessed not only for its price tag but for its potential to reduce expected losses, lower insurance premiums, and improve audit outcomes. The conversation in this case can shift from cost containment to value preservation.

See also: How AI Is Supercharging the Tools CFOs Already Trust

Protecting Revenue in a Platform Economy

As B2B commerce becomes increasingly platform-based, companies are not just managing internal payment flows; they are orchestrating ecosystems of buyers, suppliers and partners. In these environments, trust is currency.

The digitization of B2B payments has created an abundance of data that can be transformed into a defensive moat. Transaction histories reveal patterns in vendor behavior, while timing and frequency signals can flag anomalies and network-level insights can identify suspicious clusters before losses occur.

However, extracting value from this data requires deliberate strategy. CFOs are increasingly collaborating with CIOs and data science teams to ensure that payment data is structured, accessible and analyzable.

When these systems are well-designed, they do more than block fraudulent transactions. They surface process inefficiencies, duplicate payments and policy violations that also erode margins. The same analytics that detect external threats can uncover internal leakage.

The latest PYMNTS Intelligence report, “From Experiment to Imperative: U.S. Product Leaders Bet on Gen AI,” captures this pivot well. Eighty-seven percent of product leaders now expect AI to improve fraud detection, 85% forecast better regulatory compliance, and 83% anticipate stronger data security.

This is only becoming more important. As the role of the CFO continues to evolve, so too do the metrics that define success. Beyond earnings per share and free cash flow, there is increasing attention to resilience, or how well an organization can absorb shocks without derailing strategy.

Fraud protection, when architected as financial strategy, can do more than reduce risk. It can protect the margin, steady the cash and fortify the foundation on which growth is built.