Fraud has been named as the biggest challenge facing the payments and card industry for the fourth consecutive year. Other challenges flagged by respondents to a survey conducted by Compass Plus, centred on mobile payments, the rise of alternative payments providers and EMV.

Half of all respondents cited fraud and security as the biggest challenge in the survey, which took in the views of more than 190 payments and banking experts from across the globe. They cited CNP fraud as the top threat for the third consecutive year (28.1 per cent), whilst card skimming, which had previously seen a 15 per cent decline, came a close second at 26.6 per cent. Internet banking hacking dropped to third place (15.6 per cent) with a nine per cent decrease. The development of new payment channels was singled-out as a particular challenge, for not only utilising these channels for quicker, easier and more convenient transactions, but also ensuring that they are secure. Despite this, less than 10 per cent named mobile malware the greatest fraud threat. Online security was also an issue, with particular reference to keeping consumer information secure from hackers especially in light of the more recent high profile breaches. Unsurprisingly, 21.7 per cent of US-based respondents cited EMV as the biggest challenge for their region. Reasons behind this included the cost of producing EMV-compatible cards and not being able to meet the deadlines for the liability shift.

“It is always interesting to track the viewpoints of card and payments industry experts to see how their opinions change over time, especially with the introduction of new technology and payment channels. Whilst there are always new challenges in the industry – everything circles back to fraud. Even other issues such as alternative payments and EMV in the US revolve around security. The fact that fraud has been named as the biggest challenge facing the industry for the fourth consecutive year highlights it as a serious issue,” says Maria Nottingham, managing director at Compass Plus GB. “The industry is constantly evolving, as are fraudsters, so financial institutions have to continuously ensure their approach to fraud prevention is layered and sufficient to take care of both internal and external threats.”

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