UK Finance publishes annual fraud report

UK Finance released its latest annual fraud report for 2022 on 11 May, which finds that over £1.2 billion was stolen through authorised and unauthorised fraud in 2022, a reduction of eight percent on 2021. In addition to this, the number of fraud cases across the UK fell by four percent to almost three million cases.

The amount of losses attributed to authorised push payment (APP) fraud also saw a decrease compared to 2021, with a total of £485.2 million in losses which equates to a 17 percent drop in 2022. The largest proportion of APP losses related to investment fraud at 24 percent, which was a 34 percent reduction on the 2021 figures. According to analysis by UK Finance, 78 percent of APP fraud cases originated online, equating to 36 percent of the total losses to APP fraud.

UK Finance provides a detailed breakdown of the statistics by fraud type, origin, total losses, total number of cases and year on year change. The fraud types that saw an increase in 2022 are purchase scams, romance scams and CEO fraud. The report also details the action taken by the banking and finance industry to combat fraud and protect consumers, the new technologies being utilised and the changing fraud trends.

Commenting on the report’s findings, David Postings, Chief Executive of UK Finance, said: “Fraud has a devastating impact on victims and over £1.2 billion was stolen by criminals last year. The banking and finance sector is at the forefront of efforts to tackle this criminal activity. The sector spends billions on detection and prevention and also refunds people who have fallen victim, even if the fraud originated outside the banking system. Our data also makes clear just how much fraud emanates from online platforms and through telecommunications. The government’s new fraud strategy rightly says we need to focus on stopping it at source and that these other sectors need to do far more to tackle the problem they are facilitating.”