UK banks achieved a £52 million reduction in card fraud losses last year, marking the largest drop among 18 European countries, according to the updated European Fraud Map from FICO.

Analysis of data released by Euromonitor International and UK Finance found that the UK achieved the largest single reduction in card fraud at eight per cent, thanks to investment in anti-fraud activities and solutions by UK banks.

The reduction was achieved despite increased transactional volume and value in 2019.

More than half of the countries saw increases in card fraud losses in 2019, according to the report, including France and Italy, which together were responsible for 71 per cent of the monetary loss increases across the 18 countries studied.

Toby Carlin, director of fraud consulting in EMEA at FICO, said: “Following a frustrating increase in 2018 - largely caused by an explosion of data compromise ‘bust out’ events - much of Europe has once again turned the tide on fraudsters, achieving a combined two per cent overall reduction.”

He said that 2020 had been a challenging environment, with COVID-19 having significant impacts on the transaction mix and threat.

“While our Fraud Map focuses on plastics fraud and, in particular, card-not-present fraud, this is just part of the story - the biggest threat today comes from digital fraud and scams which continue to increase exponentially across all markets,” concluded Carlin.

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