My name is Frank McKenna. I am a fraud consultant here in San Diego California.  I have had the chance to work with over 25 banks, lenders, and companies helping them build their fraud prevention strategies.

I often get asked to help organizations assess their talent in the fraud group.  Banks have a really difficult time filling positions for fraud executives and managers.

Why is that?  I will try to answer that here.

But as well, I will let you in on a little secret.  I have found that there are 3 qualities that I find in every fraud manager that I encounter.   If I was hiring a fraud manager and wanted the best, I would look for these 3 things to ensure success.

# 1 – Great Fraud Managers Have Knowledge of How Fraud Works and How to Address It

Some companies make the mistake of thinking that the best fraud managers have 30 years of fraud experience with big banks.

This is not always the case.  

In fact, the # of years experience and experience working at a big bank are often not that important at all. I have seen some incredible fraud managers working at small and mid-banks.

What is important is knowledge of how fraud works and how best to address it.

Good fraud managers have not seen it all.  But they have seen enough to know how to build a strategy to detect and prevent it. Good fraud managers have knowledge of how to best address fraud. That cannot always be solely measured by the number of years experience they have.

Good fraud managers know that every strategy has key components that need to be addressed:

• Analytics and Scores – What analytics can they use to best address the problem
• Rules and Parameters – What rules and parameters can they layer on those analytics
• Operations – How do they operationalize a response that is efficient and consistent
• Reporting – How do they build reporting to constantly adjust their strategy
• People – How do they keep their own people and others in the company passionate about fraud.

Knowledge is important.  The number of years of experience is not.  That is why I believe 50% of great fraud managers’ success is due to knowledge.

#2  Great Fraud Managers Have A Passion for Stopping Fraud.  They Live and Breathe to Stop the Fraudsters.

The greatest fraud managers I have met take fraud personally.  If a fraudster steals a dollar from the organization they treat it like their own dollar.

Great fraud managers scheme at new and clever ways to stop fraudsters at night, when they wake up in the morning when they take a shower.

Great fraud managers are passionate about what they do.  They love what they do. And because they love what they do they are great at it.

Because great fraud managers love what they do they are not afraid to dig into the details, to roll up their sleeves, and do the grunt work if necessary.

1/3 of a Fraud Managers’ success is dependent on their passion for stopping fraudsters.   Good fraud managers are inspirational in the battle against fraud.

Great fraud managers have a grasp of all the details but also have the ability to develop a fraud strategy at the highest executive levels.  They are doers.  They are leaders. They inspire others to join them in the battle against fraud.

This is an intangible skill.  In my mind, there are two types of people in the world. People who understand fraud and “get it”.  And people who don’t.  Good fraud managers always get it.

#3 – Great Fraud Managers Can Persuade the Whole Organization to Do The Right Thing.

Great Fraud Managers are great persuaders. They are made during the good times.  During the times when fraud is low.  When fraud is boring.  When no one in the company wants to spend a dime on new fraud initiatives because fraud is simply not a problem.

It is during these times that great fraud managers prove their mettle by keeping the organization focused and keep the organization investing to prevent the fraud that will undoubtedly happen soon.

Great fraud managers are able to go head to head with marketing, with sales, and with all the competing interests and be the voice of fraud.  They keep the organization in check.  They go against the status quo.  They keep pushing even when it is not a popular opinion.

It’s easy to stop fraudsters. It’s much harder to convince your employer to let you do it.

Great fraud managers can persuade even the most aggressive organizations to keep their fraud in check by continually investing.I believe 20% of the makeup of a good fraud manager is based on this intangible skill to communicate and persuade their case to the entire organization

What do you think?

What do you think?  Do you have a different opinion? Was there anything I left out? I would love to hear about your experiences. Thanks for reading.