World leaders have reached a new agreement to tackle financial fraud at the first Global Fraud Summit, setting out a four-point framework to combat fraud.

The leaders of all G7 and Five Eyes, alongside South Korea and Singapore, agreed a communiqué recognising the transnational threat of fraud as a prominent global issue, calling on public and private sector collaboration as part of the fight.

Under the framework, leaders pledged to enhance law enforcement cooperation, improve victim support and bolster intelligence sharing.

Payment fraud and fraudulently acquired funds from bank accounts across jurisdictions were highlighted as key areas of financial fraud that the agreement would look to clampdown on, protecting financial institutions and finance teams across the business sphere.

Perttu Nihti, Chief Product Officer at Basware, commented: “Fraud is a significant challenge facing finance departments, especially when the complexities of international trade are involved. Over 70% of businesses fall victim to invoice or payment fraud each year, with Accounts Payable (AP) teams the most targeted, with 58% compromised annually through vendor impersonation scams alone.

“The Global Fraud Summit is a great opportunity for international collaboration between the US, EU and world leaders to address the challenges impacting many businesses and we hope to see increased emphasis on AP and payments fraud in particular.

“To protect against the rising tide of fraud, firms must understand the type of threat facing them and turn to an automated defense to gain visibility over problematic areas in real-time. Machine learning and AI solutions can help finance teams to detect and prevent various types of payment errors, including external threats like invoice cloning and vendor impersonations.”

As part of the agreement, there will be an emphasis on intelligence sharing and operational resources between law enforcement agencies, providing a more comprehensive threat picture across borders.

The NCA, FBI, United States Secret Service and Homeland Security Investigations will play a particularly prominent role in the fraud fight.

UK Home Secretary James Cleverly said: “We’ve been clear that the global community needs to unite to fight fraud head on and this communique is a massive step forward.”