Total Threat Levels

Threat Levels Reduced in Half of European States Covered

This was another strong year for many European countries in reducing basis point fraud losses against the backdrop of increased transactional volume and value in 2019. The United Kingdom has led the field once more with a basis point reduction of 0.55 from 2018 (~75% higher than the next best reduction). Whilst the bottom three countries on this chart remain the same, the reductions reported by the UK, and the increases seen by France, have now closed the gap to just over a single point. Based on the current trends and performance, France is predicted to overtake the UK within the next 2 years.

Outside of the bottom 3, Sweden has overtaken Spain for 4th highest, with Italy and Hungary both gaining places further down the rankings. Norway is the other success story from 2019, reducing basis points losses by 0.14 and dropping 2 places in the rankings from 6th in 2018, to 8th in 2019.

Reporting across the EU is still being standardised in many countries, so the picture will continue to develop. However, it is clear that the threats in many areas are continuing to escalate and remain unchecked. 2020 has been a challenging environment for all, with COVID-19 having significant impacts on the transaction mix and threat. This has exposed many frameworks that were already pressured, with fraudsters now attempting to make up for lost time with increased volume and ferocity of their attacks.

Fraud basis points is a standard measure of card fraud severity, and can show how a bank or a country compares to others. 1 basis point is equivalent to 1 cent per €100. It works the same in any currency and provides an indicator of the fraud-to-sales ratio.