This is an excerpt from Premium Access Credit Union's report, The Future of Fraud Detection 2022: Inclusive, secure, fit for purpose.

The Covid-19 pandemic has proven that digital accessibility and digital provisioning must be seamless, and services must be able to scale at a rapid rate. Servicing must not be at the \ expense of security and risk-based decisions must always be made, even in times of economic volatility.

Speed does lead to riskier decisions, and in turn, less secure or more risky outcomes overall. But this is a concern that needs to be addressed and monitored as we move into a more sustainable world, where digital accessibility is expected. Delivering barrier-free banking is key and security must always be real-time and contextual, particularly where identity is concerned.

Identities must be safeguarded as well as payments. Ignatius Adjei, director, forensic data analytics, KPMG UK, highlights that fraud prevention has taken centre stage in a world where rapidly evolving technology is creating new attack surfaces for cybercriminals.

“Technology has been and is continuing to evolve fast. Customer interactions were already on a steeped trajectory of becoming digital and what Covid-19 has done is just accelerate the process by three years or so. During the pandemic, we’ve seen transaction volumes increase by 29% globally and there has been specific growth in online banking registrations across web and mobile during lockdown.

“The rise of new payment channels and digitalisation has given fraudsters ample opportunity to commit crimes – and they have taken it,” Adjei says. According to UK Finance, £754 million was stolen from bank customers during the first half of 2021 - a 30% rise from 2020. Adjei also calls out that there has been continual growth in automated bot hacks and synthetic identity fraud has skyrocketed, as bad actors continue to use stolen identities to open fake bank accounts.

“What has become clear is that as businesses have quickly adopted digital payment and customer interaction methods, the sheer speed of rollout of such technologies has outpaced the fraud risk assessments which should be carried out to manage and mitigate potential fraud threats. Criminals too have evolved their technologies used to support their criminal activities.”

Eric Duflos, consumer protection lead - senior financial sector specialist at Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), also reveals that research conducted by CGAP in 2022 identified 66 consumer risks and found that some risks are increasing so rapidly that they are outgrowing consumer adoption rates.