Payment fraud in the European Economic Area (EEA) reached €4.2bn ($4.9bn) in 2024, up from €3.5bn in 2023, according to the latest joint report by the European Banking Authority (EBA) and the European Central Bank (ECB).
The European payment fraud trends highlighted in the report underlines the importance of strong customer authentication (SCA) and the need for ongoing vigilance against evolving threats.
The 2025 edition of the EBA-ECB report covers semi-annual data from 2022 to 2024 and confirms that the legal requirement for SCA, introduced in 2020, has contributed to reducing overall fraud levels.
However, it also emphasises that new types of fraud are emerging, requiring security measures to be continuously adapted.
The report assesses payment fraud reported by the industry across the EEA, with totals of €3.4bn in 2022, €3.5bn in 2023, and €4.2bn in 2024.
It analyses both the total number of payment transactions and the subset of fraudulent transactions, considering both value and volume.
In addition to aggregated figures, the report provides breakdowns by payment method, such as credit transfers, direct debits, card payments, cash withdrawals, and e-money transactions.
Country-specific data is also included to give a detailed view of the fraud landscape across the EEA.
Transactions authenticated with SCA were found to be less susceptible to fraud, particularly card payments.
However, for other payment types, such as credit transfers, this effect was less pronounced.
Notably, card payment fraud was seventeen times higher when the payment recipient was outside the EEA, where SCA is not legally required and often not used.
The report confirms the positive impact of SCA requirements introduced under the revised EU Payment Services Directive (PSD2) in 2020 and the supporting technical standards issued by the EBA in cooperation with the ECB in 2018.
However, it also notes that new types of fraud are targeting transactions with SCA exemptions or manipulating users to authenticate fraudulent transactions.
Furthermore, the distribution of fraud losses varied by payment instrument and differed significantly across the EEA.
In 2024, credit transfers accounted for €2.2bn in losses, a 16% year-on-year increase, while card payments with cards issued in the EU/EEA reached €1.329bn, a 29% increase.
For credit transfers, payment service users bore about 85% of the losses, mainly due to scams tricking users into initiating fraudulent transactions.
The EBA and the ECB stated that they will “continue to monitor and publish payment fraud data to provide a robust basis for informed policy decisions, and for supervisory and oversight actions on how to combat payment fraud.”
