Central Bank of Ireland publishes payment fraud data showing 2023 losses rose 26% to EUR 126m

The Central Bank of Ireland published a new Behind the Data paper analysing Irish payment fraud statistics for 2022 and 2023 across credit transfers, card payments, e-money and direct debits. The paper finds that fraud is increasing in Ireland, but overall fraud rates remain below European Union averages for most payment methods, with the exception of card payments. The total value of fraudulent payments rose to EUR 126m in 2023 from EUR 100m in 2022, while the fraud rate remained low at 0.001% of all transactions by value and 0.01% by volume. Credit transfers accounted for around 60% of fraud by value despite representing 4% of fraudulent transactions, with credit transfer fraud totalling EUR 70m in 2023 across 24,000 transactions; approximately 60% of total fraud value in 2022–2023 involved cross-border payments. Card payment fraud was dominated by “issuance of payment orders by the fraudster” (around 98% by value), with online card payments representing 86% of card fraud value (EUR 37.4m) in 2023; card payments also had the highest fraud rate by value (0.034%). The analysis highlights rising “manipulation of the payer” fraud in credit transfers and e-money (in credit transfers increasing from 27% in the first half of 2022 to 42% by end-2023), and that around half of fraud in electronic payments by value was not authenticated via Strong Customer Authentication (EUR 52m in 2023). The Central Bank intends to provide semi-annual updates on payment fraud statistics and link these updates to wider European data publications.