European Card Fraud - France

Strengthening Control over CNP Fraud

France has kept a steady hand on their fraud losses for several years. There is a marginal increase from €409M to €413M, but these are in line with expected global increases as overall payment volumes grow. The graph indicates that France is in control of losses and, despite them being proportionately high compared to other European countries, this is a normal trend relative to the size and economy of the country. 

However, France’s basis points have increased from 4.25 to 4.74, suggesting the rise in card fraud is outpacing consumer spending. Card fraud has increased marginally, but spending has reduced (from €965M to €871M) which is driving the spike in BPS.

Card-not-present fraud remains the main loss type, taking up around 77% of all fraud loss. The Banque de France has issued further guidance to mitigate this type of fraud loss, building on Strong Customer Authentication measures implemented as part of PSD2. In January they outlined criteria for declining card-not-present payments over certain thresholds (split by merchant-initiated, customer-initiated, and mail order/telephone order). It’s encouraging to see that France is taking steps to manage this fraud type, and it’s hoped that as the changes come in through 2026 we see a marked improvement.