I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from your organisation. Please may you provide me with:

1. When are you next going through an audit of the national fraud initiative?
The National Fraud Initiative main data matching exercise is taking place towards the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025 as per the Cabinet Office timetable.

2. What current procedures do you have in place such as confirmation of payee against fraud?
We currently do not have access to any payee confirmation via BACs. When processing bank payments, when we add the account payee, the bank checks the name on the account and if it matches their record.

3. What is your current confirmation of payee software incumbent product & the renewal date of the contract.
WBC do have a contract with Fiscals Technologies due to expire in September 2025 which identifies potential fraud risks with supplier and transaction duplicates, transactional spikes in valuation, unusual invoice number or entry date and dormany suppliers.