Is the War on Fraud being won?

Andy, you're right, you are not comparing apples with apples and these news stories do not neccessarily conflict with each other. Part of the issue is that first party fraud is frequently counted as debt and therefore is regarded as an asset rather than a liability. Fraud managers are, typically, unenthusiastic to tackle this issue even if given the tools to do so.

The high level stats can look contradictive, you need to get down to the detail level to understand what is really going on.

Thanks. Putting out a statement that 41% of the fall is attributed to fraudsters impersonating customers is a little ambiguous and misleading from my perspective. Yes fraudsters can use genuine cardholder details to obtain goods or services (impersonation).  However, the reality is here we are measuring and talking about third party fraud - fraud not perpetrated by the cardholder. Yet CIFAS reports cite 18% increases in Account Takeover and 10% rises in Identity theft  - also third party fraud. The CIFAS measurements aren’t necessarily at the payment (Card) level – which is really the point that I was making in respect of comparing apples with apples in my initial blog.  

Finally, not sure I share your views on the first party issue. I think the industry takes the topic very seriously given that it is widely suspected that this type of fraud can also be a vehicle used to finance terrorist activities.   

Your comments on first party fraud don't match my experience from talking to bankers. Maybe they have changed in the last 3-4 years, but previously, the fraud managers were focussed on 3rd party fraud reduction and the debt managers were not interested in potential first party fraud within the debt book.

A valid and interesting viewpoint.  Perhaps we can carry this discussion on offline.  Please feel free to contact my office – happy to chat further.