Public trust in the payments market is central to its functioning. The major problems with payment fraud in recent years risk undermining this confidence.

With effect from last year, Finansinspektionen (the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority) has been publishing biannual statistics on fraud through payment services. The authority is tasked by the government with monitoring payment service providers' compliance with the Payment Services Act, a piece of legislation that aims, among other things, to combat fraud. Finansinspektionen’s statistics cover fraud reported by payment service providers under its supervision. The latest published statistics show that the number of frauds has increased, totalling more than SEK 1 billion in the first half of 2024.

According to preliminary statistics from the Police, the total number of frauds decreased slightly in 2024 compared to 2023. Unlike the Finansinspektionen data, the Police statistics cover all reported offences. The number of card frauds has decreased, while so-called authorisation frauds have increased by 12 per cent. Authorisation frauds can involve the fraudster claiming to be calling from the victim's bank and misleading the victim into signing something with their e-identification or providing sensitive information. This type of fraud is rarely compensated by banks given the current regulatory framework. This means that the victims will have to bear the loss themselves.

At the same time, the fight against fraud is given high priority by market participants as well as by the government and authorities. Last May, for example, Finansinspektionen published a report showing how payment service providers are working to prevent fraud. The report is the result of a government commission and describes, among other things, how payment service providers develop the technical protections and carry out educational activities aimed at consumers. The report also shows that social manipulation is the most common form of fraud, and that it mainly affects the elderly. Social manipulation involves people being manipulated by fraudsters to carry out transactions or give up sensitive information.

In the report, the Finansinspektionen proposes measures to reduce fraud and strengthen consumer protection. According to Finansinspektionen, payment service providers should bear a larger share of the loss, which would give them greater incentive to develop safer services. Additional measures proposed include stronger requirements regarding transaction monitoring for payment service providers, better opportunities for information sharing between authorities and payment service providers, and regulation that counteracts and makes it more difficult to manipulate mobile and telephone numbers. A couple of the proposals may be implemented via new EU legislation, through the Commission's proposal for a reformed payment services framework, which is currently being negotiated in the Council and the European Parliament.

Banks are also prioritising fraud prevention. In May 2024, Finance Sweden presented a package of measures to counter fraud. In line with Finansinspektionen’s proposals, this includes monitoring how transactions develop, as well as adjustments to the banks’ product offerings, such as time delays and limits on amounts. This means similar adjustments to those recommended by Finansinspektionen to enable more people to access payment accounts.

The banks’ measures package also involves being able to exclude criminals and fraudsters from certain services, such as Swish and BankID. It is positive that concrete measures are being taken to strengthen protection against fraud, as this helps to increase security for bank customers and reduce the risk of financial crime.

Fraud is not only a problem in Sweden, but also in other countries. This is shown, among other things, in a report produced by the European Central Bank (ECB) together with the European Banking Authority (EBA). According to the report, payment fraud in the EEA totalled €4.3 billion in 2022 and €2 billion in the first half of 2023. In the EU, there is a requirement for Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) for card payments, for example a code or BankID in addition to the card. This has contributed to a decrease in card fraud, but according to the ECB and the EBA, card fraud is still the most common form of payment fraud in the EU. This is because a fraudster can steal card details without having access to the physical card and use the data for online transactions in countries where strong customer authentication is not required.