New data from FICO has revealed that UK banks achieved the largest reduction in card fraud losses in 2019 compared to other countries across Europe.
That’s according to the updated FICO European Fraud Map, which discovered that UK banks have reduced fraud losses by £52m since 2018.
In contrast, more than half of the 18 European countries included in the data set saw increases in card fraud losses in 2019, with France and Italy seeing the largest increases (€8m and €6m respectively) when taking into account associated values.
However, the FICO European Fraud Map did record a 2% reduction in fraud losses across all 18 of the European countries last year.
FICO partners with the majority of banks in Europe to support their fraud prevention activities,.
“Following a frustrating increase in 2018 – largely caused by an explosion of data compromise ‘bust out’ events – much of Europe has once again turned the tide on fraudsters, achieving a combined 2% overall reduction,” said Toby Carlin, director of fraud consulting in EMEA at FICO. “British consumers should be reassured that the UK achieved the largest single reduction in fraud at 8%. This is a testament to the anti-fraud activities and investments by UK banks, which reduced fraud losses in 2019 by £52 million – that’s a million pounds every week.”
Carlin added that 2020 has been a challenging environment for all, with COVID-19 having significant impacts on the transaction mix and related threats.
“This has exposed many frameworks that were already pressured, with fraudsters now attempting to make up for lost time with increased volume and ferocity of their attacks. While our Fraud Map focuses on plastics fraud and, in particular, card-not-present fraud, this is just part of the story. The biggest threat today comes from digital fraud and scams which continue to increase exponentially across all markets.”