Bank of Italy reports low fraud rates in digital retail payments and flags rising payer manipulation scams as new IBAN checks near

The Bank of Italy published its update on the second half of 2024 in the Report on fraudulent payment transactions in Italy, setting out trends in fraud across digital retail payments and how losses are distributed between customers and payment service providers. Based on semi-annual reporting from payment service providers, the analysis covers credit transfers, debit and credit cards, e-money and ATM withdrawals across channels (physical POS and e-commerce), domestic versus cross-border activity, and the role of safeguards such as strong customer authentication (SCA). Reported fraud rates remained low at 0.002 per cent for credit transfers overall, 0.017 per cent for card transactions and 0.021 per cent for e-money, with instant credit transfers showing higher fraud rates (0.057 per cent) than ordinary credit transfers (0.0015 per cent). Remote card and e-money transactions were more exposed than physical POS, although the gap narrowed in 2024 due to a decline in online purchase fraud, and cross-border fraud rates were significantly higher than domestic, particularly for cards and e-money. The report highlights the spread of “manipulation of the payer” fraud in credit transfers and its rise in card transactions, noting that unlike “unauthorized” frauds such as card cloning (down 7 per cent year on year), payer manipulation can occur even with SCA and does not automatically trigger reimbursement mechanisms, making recovery harder for users. As of 9 October 2025, payment service providers will be required to perform real-time verification of the IBAN and beneficiary data for both instant and traditional credit transfers and warn customers of discrepancies before the payment is authorized.