26 May 2023

• Card fraud in 2021 falls to lowest level since start of data collection
• 12% decline in card-not-present fraud after introduction of strong customer authentication
• 63% of total value of card fraud involves cross-border transactions

The European Central Bank (ECB) has today published its card fraud report, which is based on information provided by 20 card payment scheme operators. Card fraud in 2021 continued its downward trend, falling to its lowest level since data collection began. It constituted 0.028% of the total value of card payments made using cards issued in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), amounting to €1.53 billion from a total value of €5.40 trillion. By comparison, card fraud in 2019 amounted to €1.87 billion from a total value of €5.16 trillion. The highest share of card fraud observed to date was 0.048% in 2008.

There are two distinct types of card fraud: (1) card-not-present fraud, i.e. fraud conducted remotely in online and telephone payments,…