The payment fraud rate across the European Economic Area (EEA) remained stable in 2024 at around 0.002 per cent of total value of transactions in a calendar year.

However, over the 12 month period, the total value of fraud increased to €4.2 billion, up from €3.5 billion in 2023, according to a newly published report by the European Banking Authority (EBA) and European Central Bank (ECB) which coves the semi-annual data for 2022 to 2024.

In 2024, the overall losses for credit transfers were €2.2 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 16 per cent.

For card payments with cards issued in the EU/EEA they were €1.3 billion, an increase of 29 per cent on the previous year.

For credit transfers, payment service users bore approximately 85 per cent of total fraud losses in 2024, mainly as a result of scams that tricked users into initiating fraudulent transactions.

Strong customer authentication

While the study suggests that the legal requirement for strong customer authentication (SCA) introduced in 2020 has contributed to reducing fraud levels, the two organisations said that the research also highlights a need for "continued vigilance", as well as adapted security measures for emerging fraud types.

They call for a particular focus on manipulation of payers, which they say will require new mitigation approaches.

New types of fraud highlighted by the EBA and ECB include the targeting of transactions for which an SCA exemption is applied or manipulating legitimate users into authenticating fraudulent transactions.

According to the report, transactions that were verified with SCA were generally less susceptible to fraud than those without it, especially card payments.

For other payment types, such as credit transfers, this impact wasn't as clear.

Notably, card payment fraud was 17 times higher when the payment recipient was outside of the EEA, where SCA is not legally required and often not used. This doesn't include the UK, where SCA rules have applied since September 2019.

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