As you may have heard, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has been taken over by the FDIC, which has put many businesses in a difficult position when it comes to cash flow over the coming weeks and months. Our thoughts are with our peers, customers, and vendors that have been affected.

We realize that upcoming receivables are a critical asset to fund your business during this time, but they have to land in the right bank account. Unfortunately, the risk for phishing is high in this environment, especially for bank account phishing, which aims to fraudulently reroute funds by updating banking details.

At Tesorio, we understand how challenging this can be, and we want to do everything we can to help you securely update banking information with your customers. We’ve put together a guide for existing customers, and we’re offering free access to other companies that may need support in this communication.

In situations like this, there will be many vendors asking you to update their payment information away from SVB to a new account. If you use Tesorio, you can automatically include limited, verifiable accounting information about your past transactions with your customers, so they know it’s you. When your vendors reach out to you, we encourage you to verify the sender and details extra carefully by calling someone you know in the finance department to confirm the new banking instructions.

Helpful Tips to Protect Your Business From Fraud

We understand that short-term cash inflows will be an important source of liquidity in the coming weeks, but we also know that phishing attacks have started. Fraudsters are taking advantage of the situation because many people are in fact asking customers to redirect funds to different banks.

We want to offer some tips to help you secure your communications and protect your business from fraud:

1. Include information that is easily verifiable by you and your customer but can also change.

For example, a statement of open invoices, the last payment amount and date you received from each customer, or the total amount outstanding owed to you from each customer. This way, your customer can validate that it's you by looking in their own accounting system.

2. Encourage your customers to call you.

They can call your finance team or a trusted CS, A/R, or sales team representative. Make sure everyone is on the same page and works together to address any concerns or validate sensitive information.

3. Be proactive and specific.

Let your customers know that you will be making this change in an email sent by someone they know and trust, such as the CEO, CFO, or a familiar representative. Remind them how you typically communicate, from what email domains, and how you send sensitive information like wire instructions. Once you've trained them, send them the information and maybe pair it with 1 & 2 above.

4. Forecast your A/R.

Make sure you are aware of what incoming payments you have due, from who, when, etc. and track it daily to make sure you're getting the money you're expecting. If not, be polite and follow up with your customer to figure it out together.

5. Lastly, remember to update your remittance information.

Update your remittance details in Coupa, Ariba, Concur, etc. for your customers that use A/P or procurement portals. Otherwise, those payments will keep going to the wrong accounts.

We recognize that this is a difficult time for everyone, and we want to assure our customers, partners, and vendors that we are here to support them.

How-To Guide For Tesorio Customers

If you need to send new wire instructions to your customers, we’ve created a quick how-to guide so you can set up templates and campaigns that will help you communicate securely with your customers. Access it here.

Not a Tesorio customer?

We’re here to help you update your customers with your new payment details.

We’re offering no obligation, limited free access to Tesorio in order for you to update your wire instructions securely with your customers. This will allow businesses to quickly and easily update their customers on any changes to their payment information while also ensuring that their cash flow is properly managed.

SVB was a great partner to Tesorio in our early days, and it saddens us to see this outcome. We are hopeful that a resolution will be found soon so that they can continue to support the startup ecosystem as they always have. We're committed to helping businesses overcome the challenges posed by the SVB shutdown. Whether you're an existing customer or a new user taking advantage of no obligation, limited free access to Tesorio we're here to support you every step of the way.

If you have any additional questions on how we can support you, please don't hesitate to contact us today.