Australia hit by bank fraud and financial scams

 KPMG’s Global Banking Survey was conducted between November 2018 and February 2019 across 43 retail banks, 13 of which are in the Asia-Pacific, 5 in the Americas, and 25 in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMA) region. The survey has found that 61% of banks have reported an increase in external fraud in value and volume over the past three years.

Moreover, respondents were questioned about trends in fraud typologies, challenges they are facing in mitigating threats, security in a digital age, and how they are structuring their teams and deploying resources to optimise their fraud risk management efforts. Findings from the KPMG global bank fraud survey show the following:

• Over half of survey respondents globally experienced increases in both external fraud total value and volume. Fraud typologies globally from 2015 to 2018 include identity theft and account takeover, cyberattack, CNP fraud, and scams;

• The total cost, average cost, and volume of internal employee fraud detected stayed the same or decreased;

• Over half of respondents recover less than 25% of fraud losses. Banks are investing in new technologies towards fraud prevention;

• In every region, and in Australia, banks surveyed considered the most significant challenge in fraud risk to be cyberattacks;

• Customers are key in the prevention and detection of fraudulent activity on their accounts, particularly to reduce scam losses;

• Open Banking is considered an emerging challenge in fraud risk, with banks across the globe getting ready to open their doors to third parties to access their customer data.