Beau: Digital fraud evolves, demands agile European response
Denis Beau, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of France, emphasized the evolving nature of digital fraud and the need for agile, coordinated European efforts to strengthen payment security. He shared lessons from France's Observatory for the Security of Payments Means (OSMP).
From tech flaws to human weaknesses
The significant shift towards digital payments, with a 70% rise in France over ten years, has led fraudsters to increasingly target human weaknesses rather than technological vulnerabilities.
While Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) significantly reduced online card fraud by 50% between 2018 and 2025, new manipulation schemes, often called authorised push payments, have surged since 2021.
These attacks leverage social engineering, often orchestrated by international criminal networks.
Emerging threats include the appropriation of AI tools for sophisticated attacks, deepfakes, and fake documents.
The crypto-assets ecosystem also presents new fraud avenues due to lower security standards and regulatory discrepancies, as detailed in a recent OSMP study.
Agility through data and collaboration
Agility is crucial for effective fraud prevention, starting with robust data collection and continuous monitoring of fraud statistics, which has been essential for the OSMP.
This data-driven approach is complemented by forward-looking technology watch studies on emerging risks like AI and digital identity, helping to anticipate new threats.
Agility also demands broad stakeholder involvement, encompassing payment service providers, consumers, merchants, and the telecommunication and tech sectors.
The OSMP has fostered collaborations to combat spoofing and smishing.
The speaker concludes that national observatories' impact could be significantly strengthened within a European framework, a development anticipated by the upcoming Payment Services Regulation (PSR) and the creation of a new European platform to combat fraud.