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I suggest the headline is missing the operational details to guide merchants on how to take advantage of the change. Personally, I'd suggest a merchant leave the un-authorised contactless limits to a level they're comfortable with, but take advantage of the increased limit with the addition of the PIN. Contacless and PIN is slowly appearing in the UK and has widespread deployment in Europe, it is a far better experience than Chip & PIN.

Where’s the detail? Which channels (I suspect CNP mainly), cardholder types, payment types, merchant types, specific payment solutions (mobile), goods delivery channels? The move towards faster payments; frictionless payments; one-click payments; contactless payments all potentially provide greater opportunity for fraud to occur, but are they part of the cause? Is the approach to cardholder use in today’s real world causing a problem, specifically relating to the one account/one card approach which forces employees to share their card credentials and authentication channel with colleagues to enable simpler business control and reporting, totally against scheme/issuer T&C, but it happens – for convenience? The same applies to consumer use, particularly when supporting the elderly or less capable. Not everyone knows or want to know they must be careful (secure) with their card credentials. I am aware there are ways round this, PoA and specific Issuer cards designed for the purpose for example, however, in this world of convenience, what’s the path of least resistance?

Could it be related to the gullible British who make overseas payments by sending card details by email or reading them out over the phone, only later to be abused by a sharp merchant employee realising Christmas has come early – surprisingly, not every part of the global payment eco-system complies with PCI DSS. In our world of increasing demands for convenience we have created many opportunities for people looking to commit fraud, to do so. In the current economic climate I suspect the number of people turning to exploit these opportunities will only increase.

Is the European Central Bank's Statistical Data Warehouse report available for review, I’d be keen to see the detail although it’s a shame it’s 3 years old? Has anything changed in the UK since 2019?

The assumption that “Solving the crisis will take more than just increased police staff” is simply that, an assumption. Without the detail from the report such an increase could be a complete waste of police time.

I welcome the call on the government for a “comprehensive whole-systems” approach, but it strikes me some of the reasons for fraud could, conveniently, be staring us all in the face.

Such a wide and growing subject that is taking us all down many paths as the juices begin to flow.  

For my two penneth, the assumption that the CBDC would bypass banks and lenders suggests there are not the requisite checks, balances, segregation, or thoroughly thought through model in place. This would leave the CB totally exposed and vulnerable without the layered system below and cannot be the way forward.

I can’t see the govt being interested in the coffee I’ve just purchased, any more than they are today. But if they wanted to, they could go to my Bank and see everything I do digitally today to assess the level of parking fine. They don’t even need to go to the Bank, HMRC has it all at their fingertips.

I completely agree that a cyber attack is the most likely and damaging threat, which is why the strengths of the existing cash and banking environment should be learnt from and built upon to prevent a massive impact from an attack and to immediately identify any issues arising.

We have to assume that such an attack would happen; enabling the requisite digital vault doors to be slammed shut is a must-have upon detection, as is a digital sprinkler system to handle the digital equivalent of a fire at the Royal Mint. The list goes on and all the brains applying themselves to the CBDC opportunity must prepare to expect the unexpected, whilst building something that can bring so much value and opportunity, including securely enabling the underbanked.

The bank level segregation could be enhanced so each bank can identify the DC it has received from the BoE, also what it and its clients have touched. What an incentive for the CB to encourage a greater number of regulated entities (banks, fintechs etc), to help control/monitor the flow of funds at their level with their fingerprint on it.

The opportunity in the digital world for CDBC to provide clear visibility of money paths, origin, destination could seriously damage current fraudsters. This has to be a prime benefit, ultimately affecting all of us, whilst also making it easier and safer for the average Joe to do what they do today.