UK Finance, the collective voice for the banking and finance industry, has released its latest fraud report.
The report, covering 2021, shows the scale of fraud taking place as well as how criminals took advantage of people’s doubts and fears during the pandemic. Over £1.3 billion was stolen through fraud and scams in 2021: unauthorised fraud was £730.4 million and authorised push payment (APP) fraud was £583.2 million, with nearly 40% of APP losses due to impersonation scams. The banking and finance industry prevented a further £1.4 billion of unauthorised fraud from getting into the hands of criminals.
UK Finance reiterates calls for cross-sector action to target the criminals responsible. Katy Worobec, Managing Director of Economic Crime at UK Finance, said: “Authorised fraud losses rose again this year as criminals targeted people through a variety of sophisticated scams, with much of the criminal activity taking place outside the banking sector, often involving online and technology platforms. Through strong customer authentication, coupled with continued investment in technology, the banking and finance industry prevents significant amounts of fraud from taking place. This is why we continue to call for other sectors to play a greater role in helping protect customers from the scourge of fraud.”
