Commercial Bank
Why Dual Approval Matters
Dual Approval is one of the most important online controls, yet the concept remains foreign
to many businesses. This article helps demystify the topic and provides a short explanation of
what it is and how it can help protect your company.
What is Dual Approval? introduces a second pair of eyes and configure the process flow, approvers
As the name implies, Dual Approval is a helps spot things that appear suspicious, and approval limits to meet the individual
control that requires two separate people strange or incorrect. Dual Approval needs of your business.
to authorize a transaction. The first clearly helps protect your business, but it Once Dual Approval has been enabled,
person is responsible for creating the also helps protect your employees from any eligible transactions will be
request (known as the maker), while the making unintended errors or deviating transferred to a pre-selected pool of
second person checks and approves the from process. checkers for authorization. The process
activity (known as the checker). How does it work? is fast, secure and robust and the
Why is Dual Approval important? Dual Approval is quick and easy to set approver simply verifies the request on
Humans are not perfect. It does not up, and it is offered at no additional cost an independent device (desktop, tablet or
matter how clever, trusted or trained we on all of Citi Commercial Bank’s online phone) and releases the transaction.
are, sooner or later everybody will make platforms. The functionality is fully
a mistake. A maker-checker process customizable, giving you the ability to
What are the benefits of Dual Approval?
Adding Dual Approval can help strengthen your online controls and protect your business from several different types of operational risk:
Payment Scams Processing Errors
Payment fraud is a growing risk, and criminals continue to A checker can help spot a variety of mistakes, from
deploy increasingly clever scams. While a fraudster may breaches of internal procedure to typing errors on the
be able to trick an individual, a system-enforced checker account number or the value of a transfer.
ensures that a second person looks at the transaction and Internal Fraud
can help capture the attempt before any money leaves While all businesses want to be able to trust their staff,
your account. the reality is that a significant number of companies have
Compromised Credentials been defrauded by an employee. External pressures and/
Fraudsters are using advanced techniques to steal or unexpected opportunities can lead a previously trusted
people’s usernames and passwords, before logging into staff member into making a poor ethical decision. Dual
their victims’ accounts and diverting funds. Even if a Approval helps mitigate this risk by acting as an effective
criminal was able to compromise one of your online user’s deterrent and also providing an opportunity for any
credentials, Dual Approval would help stop the attacker wrongdoing to be identified early in the process.
from being able to make a withdrawal.
Common Questions
If I have full confidence in my team, I don’t have enough staff What happens if an approver is busy,
do I really need Dual Approval? to check everything. on holiday or off sick?
Even the most diligent of employees Dual Approval is fully customizable, so As with any business process,
can make a mistake or be tricked by a you can choose exactly what transactions contingency planning is critically
fraudster. The majority of payments fraud you want to send for authorization. You important. When you set up Dual
is now completed by large, professional have the ability to design the control to fit Approval, you are able to nominate a
criminal organisations that use advanced your business and balance the volume of pool of checkers and it is recommended
tactics to deceive honest and trustworthy approval requests by restricting the types to try to nominate a minimum of three
company employees. of transactions and/or values that approvers for each eligible transaction.
require checking.
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Citigroup Inc. or its affiliates, used and registered throughout the world.
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