SPAIN No Change in Fraud YoY

Spain Stays in Steady State Amidst Rising Threat Levels

Like their neighbour Portugal, Spain experienced a swift migration from cash to e-commerce during the pandemic, with the new payment environment becoming firmly established in 2021.

Spain continues to contain its fraud losses, and we have seen no significant change in trends in the last ten years. Whilst this steady-state containment approach may at first glance appear to be “not bad”, Spain’s position is certainly “not good” either. Spain has the third highest threat levels of the European countries studied, with basis points coming in at 4.38 in 2021. Overall losses were €91.3M in 2021, and whilst this comes in significantly below the losses incurred by the United Kingdom and France, threat levels in Spain are escalating exponentially in comparison. With digital channels more commonplace and internet penetration rate at 94% at the start of 2022, it is likely that fraudsters may begin to exploit these newer channels and Spanish banks will need to do more to combat further increasing and rapidly evolving threats.