The risk of payment card fraud: an analysis of the Italian market over the period 2015-24

Matteo D'Amato (), Paolo Finaldi Russo (), Raffaele Santioni () and Luca Tomassetti ()
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Matteo D'Amato: Bank of Italy
Paolo Finaldi Russo: Bank of Italy
Raffaele Santioni: Bank of Italy
Luca Tomassetti: Bank of Italy

No 986, Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) from Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area

Abstract: This study analyses developments in fraudulent transactions on payment cards in Italy over the period 2015 to 2024 and was conducted in the perspective of highlighting the risk to users of being victims of fraud, adopting a customer protection approach. Our results show that the fraud rate on individual payments has remained very low: today, fraud affects only 13 out of every 100,000 transactions, resulting in a loss of €18 for every €100,000 of payments. However, the growing use of payment cards has led to a significant increase in the likelihood of individuals experiencing fraud. The study proposes several indicators that approximate this risk. These have more than doubled over the period considered: fraudulent transactions now affect 2.9 per cent of the adult population, 1.2 per cent of payment cards in circulation, and 2.0 per cent of bank account holders. The risk of fraud is higher, on average, for clients of larger intermediaries compared with the rest of the system, probably because fraudsters are able access a wider pool of customers.

Keywords: fraud; payment operations; payment cards; bank payment account (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D18 E42 G2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-12
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