The European Banking Authority (EBA) and the European Central Bank (ECB) published the 2025 edition of their joint report on payment fraud across the European Economic Area (EEA), covering semi-annual data for 2022 to 2024. The report finds that the overall payment fraud rate in 2024 was stable at around 0.002% of total transaction value, but the total value of fraud increased to EUR 4.2 billion from EUR 3.5 billion in 2023, underscoring that fraudsters are adapting even as strong customer authentication (SCA) remains effective against the fraud types it was designed to mitigate. Fraud reported by industry totalled EUR 3.4 billion in 2022, EUR 3.5 billion in 2023 and EUR 4.2 billion in 2024, with breakdowns by payment instrument and by country. Transactions verified with SCA were generally less susceptible to fraud than those without it, particularly for card payments, while the effect for other payment types such as credit transfers was less clear; card payment fraud was 17 times higher when the payment recipient was outside the EEA, where SCA is not legally required and often not used. The report also highlights growth in fraud that targets transactions where an SCA exemption is applied or that manipulates legitimate users into authenticating fraudulent transactions, with 2024 losses of EUR 2.200 billion for credit transfers (up 16% year on year) and EUR 1.329 billion for card payments with EU/EEA-issued cards (up 29%); for credit transfers, payment service users bore around 85% of total fraud losses in 2024, mainly due to scams that induced users to initiate fraudulent transactions. The report sits alongside PSD2 fraud reporting to national competent authorities under the EBA Guidelines on fraud reporting, and euro area fraud reporting to national central banks under the ECB’s payments statistics regulation, with data provided to the EBA and ECB through a single semi-annual data flow. The EBA and ECB indicated they will continue monitoring and publishing payment fraud data to support policy, supervisory and oversight actions.
European Banking Authority 2025-12-15
European Banking Authority and European Central Bank publish joint report showing rising payment fraud losses despite effective strong customer authentication
The European Banking Authority and European Central Bank's 2025 report on payment fraud in the European Economic Area notes a stable fraud rate of 0.002% in 2024 but an increase in total fraud value to EUR 4.2 billion. Strong customer authentication remains effective, yet fraudsters are adapting, targeting transactions with exemptions or manipulating users. The report supports ongoing policy and supervisory actions under PSD2 and ECB regulations.