Wire Requests Via E-mail

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Question:

As more and more business customers rely on e-mail, should the bank wire departments accept wire requests (scanned from the banks wire form) via e-mail?

Answer:

Acceptance of wire instructions by email could be allowed with proper controls in place. Do a risk assessment, thinking through what could go wrong. Is the customer's email password protected? Who has access to the email account that will be used for requests? Should the wire instructions only be accepted via encrypted email since account numbers might be needed in the email? Besides resolving email security, you need to think about controlling who can request the wire. Controls to consider are authentication techniques, such as test keys, PINs or callbacks. Also, to what email address at the bank will the emails be sent? You don't want them sent to employee's individual accounts where they might sit untended due to an employee being absent, in meetings, or out of the bank on business. Consider a centralized email address for such requests.

First published on BankersOnline.com 1/22/07