Historic decline in electronic payment fraud

Another good news for the security of the means of payment issued in France, in the continuity of 2016: fraud continues its downward trend. The annual report of the observatory of the security of the means of payment presented this Tuesday, July 10 by the governor of the Bank of France François Villeroy de Galhau put forward important progress in the fight against the fraud on all the non-cash means of payment, with the exception of checks. It has decreased by 6.8% in general, from 798 to 744 million euros in 2017.

"There was in 2017 a significant decline in the fraud on the together means payment, a historic decline, "said at the outset the Governor of the Bank of France Francois Villeroy de Galhau.

While specifying that payment in cash remained a majority in France, the Governor of the Bank of France has painted the panorama of the new practices of the French as well as evolutions of the fraud. He underlined the substantial decline in the annual amount of payment fraud in France. That said, the number of cases has increased (5.1 million fraudulent transactions in 2017 against 4.8 million in 2016).

Online fraud in sharp decline

] All electronic or electronic payment means benefited from this decline. The bank card the preferred way of the French (52% of cashless payments ie out of cash), concentrates nearly half of the fraud amounting to 361 million euros, but this overall amount is down 4.7%, for the second year in a row. The card fraud rate decreases to about 1 euro of fraud for 1,850 euros of transactions (ie 0.054% and only 0.032% for payments made in France). It is still online that the card payment records the highest rate of fraud, even if it is there also down (to 0,161% against 0,210% a year earlier, ie a ] euro of fraud for 620 euros of payment )

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[Après une première inflexion en 2016, le taux de fraude sur les cartes bancaires continue à se poursuivre. Crédit : Banque de France]

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On the side of levies and transfers fraud rates are close to zero ( 0.0003% for transfers and 0.0006% for withdrawals), and still down compared to last year

Collective Mobilization of the French Ecosystem

Very encouraging results, therefore, enabled by the deployment of sophisticated means to secure dematerialized payments. François Villeroy de Galhau thus noted the almost universal adoption of the 3D-Secure system (for online payments) and the development of scoring devices algorithms capable of evaluate the level of risk of a transaction on the basis of certain characteristics (customer habits, location, equipment used)

The Governor of the Banque de France also praised a "French ecosystem and collective mobilization for the security of payments that does not exist among our neighbors " in particular in the framework of the transposition of the second European directive on payment services (DSP2), which came into force in January 2018

See also: Payment: the DSP2 directive comes into force, what is it?

He thus presented the plural composition of the observatory, in which government collaborates, banking establishments, consumer and merchant badociations.

"The security of the means of payment must be the subject of a strategic policy for France and Europe, and must not be relegated to the back office", added François Villeroy de Galhau

Moreover, he recalled that since the order of January 2009, in the event of payment fraud, the bank must repay the customer immediately and in full.

The exception of check

In this context of general improvement of the security of electronic payments, the check detonates among the non-cash payments. Indeed, the share of the check in the defrauded amounts increases ( 40% of the frauds in 2017 against 34% in 2016) whereas this one is less and less used : His shares in the means of payment went from 9 to 8% .

This growing fraud reaches 296 million euros in 2017, ie 25 million more than in 2016, because of an increase in the average amount of fraud, from 2,300 euros to 2,580 euros in 2017. The most frequent cases of fraud remain the theft of checkbooks during their transportation or the falsification of checks.

Many actors are also working on alternatives to checks, innovative and secure.

"The observatory is very favorable to the innovation of means of payment but security remains a priority, it must develop at the same time as innovation, "said François Villeroy de Galhau

Asked about the future evolution of behaviors and means of payment in France, the governor of the Banque de France did not venture to make predictions on the adoption of instant payment by individuals . He further emphasized the need to continue to offer all means of payment to individuals and businesses.

"It is imperative to guarantee free access to all means of payment and to be of equal quality and of equal security. Innovation must never be an obligation, it can generate exclusion, that of people more marginalized from digitization, "said the governor of the Banque de France.

Read also: The revolution of instant payment landed in France