With fraud continuing to be a growing risk to businesses across all industries, it is regarded as a worldwide threat by leading organisations such as PwC, the SRA, the ACFE and more. Its acceleration does not appear to be slowing, however, in the midst of this increased threat and overall awareness, businesses should be looking to take a proactive approach to fraud prevention rather than simply responding with a crisis management strategy once an incident has already occurred. Here is where a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) can prove most helpful. For our blog this week, we’ll be addressing why you should consider a CFE course and the benefits it can bring to you as an individual, but also to your wider organisation.
What is the Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) accreditation?
If you’re working within compliance, risk, audit, investigatory, financial or legal roles within an organisation or have had first-hand experience of these areas, a CFE can be an essential resource to help you to develop a broad range of skills to be part of the global fight against fraud. As an internationally recognised fraud qualification, this four-day intensive course can help individuals effectively detect, manage and prevent fraud from occurring in their organisation by providing them with the knowledge and understanding to put effective systems and processes in place. Knowledge really is power, and when shared with the wider organisation, learnings taken from this course can be an essential part of the solution in fraud prevention.
On passing the exams for this accreditation individuals gain access to membership of the ACFE, joining a network of fraud examiners with access to invaluable fraud insights, events and opportunities to network, world class training as well as wide range of support materials and career support.
Why is this course necessary?
We know that the threat of fraud isn’t going away. For example, in the first half of 2018 alone, £500million was stolen from customers of British banks due to authorised push payment scams where people were conned to sending money to another account. However, businesses also remain a key target and should be looking to mitigate risk, particularly in the legal sector, which reported that £10.7million of client money was lost to cyber crime in 2017, with 157 reports of cyber crime in that year alone. With such an increased volume of attacks, it’s a problem which needs to be tackled and businesses should be looking to robust training methods to help make an impact and gain a wider perspective. In undertaking this course, learners will be able to take a three-pronged approach to a counter-fraud policy, looking at prevention by understanding how your firm could be compromised; detection processes whether that’s part of your technology or team understanding; and finally, a response process helping you to understand how to deal with any issues and respond accordingly.
What are the benefits?
As a whole, the course covers topics such as fraud investigation techniques, financial transactions and fraud schemes, law relating to fraud and also tips around fraud prevention and deterrence. Thanks to this wide scope of learning material, the CFE course has a range of benefits, drawing in delegates from across the world, most recently Martin Barye of Mars Inc., who chose to undertake the course for added credibility in his role. Other benefits include impacting your company’s bottom line, helping them to avoid losses to fraud which would inevitably have wider ramifications than purely financial. As an individual, however, it can also open up career opportunities in fraud prevention with the potential for higher earnings thanks to the increased added value that this certificate brings to any organisation.
A CFE course is an incredibly useful place to start a career in fraud prevention, helping individuals to identify potential risks and ways to combat any fraudulent activity. Training in fraud prevention should be an ongoing process to ensure that individuals are at the cutting edge of prevention techniques, helping to combat the issue and reduce the number of fraud cases worldwide. So, do you think this course is for you? For more information about our upcoming CFE course or to book your place, contact us on 02920 451 000 or email us at: infoaltior@barbri.com