UK shows signs of fraud resilience as Europe sees losses increase by 21%

New analysis by Fico has shown that the UK financial services sector is making good strides in preventing fraud, as card fraud losses rose by just 2% year-on-year. This is in stark contrast to many European countries, including Norway, Sweden, Poland, Hungary and Greece, where fraud losses have jumped by 15% or more year-on-year. Across the continent, card fraud losses have reached an all-time high of €1.69 billion

Reporting card fraud losses of £594.9 million in 2025, up slightly from £592.5 million in 2024, the UK remains below the peak of £620.6 million seen in 2019. Within these losses, Card-not-Present fraud increased slightly, from £412.5 million in 2024 to £423.5 million in 2025.

The report also showed that ID fraud losses in the UK fell 12% from £61.5 million in 2024 to £54 million in 2025, despite the unprecedented acceleration in AI technology, which is allowing fraudsters to create increasingly convincing synthetic identities. Losses from Card Lost or Stolen also decreased, from £111.7 million to £109.8 million year-on-year.

According to UK Finance data, the number of fraud cases has risen along with the number of cards in circulation. The threat of cards being taken by a fraudster is significant, particularly as changes to regulation around contactless limits mean a stolen card could yield more money before being PIN locked.

Sarah Cassidy, Senior Fraud Consultant at FICO in EMEA, said “The biggest threat to the UK financial services ecosystem is the relentless use of social engineering tactics, requiring multiple strategies to thwart fraudsters across the full customer journey. In particular, banks are seeing a concerning trend of consumers being tricked into divulging one-time passwords, which allows fraudsters to connect the cards to their own devices and e-wallets. Once this ‘authentic’ token is created, the fraudster can spend large amounts unchecked.”

“While social engineering is a key concern across Europe, the UK has demonstrated its resilience against such attacks and has also made good strides in tackling ID fraud. However, while fraud losses are under control for now, cases are still on the rise, and it is imperative that banks act. They must strengthen their fraud prevention across the full customer journey to successfully fight sophisticated fraud. AI tools, comprehensive customer profiling and monitoring of all transactional and non-transactional events will allow banks to detect patterns, pick up on warning signs and stop fraud and scams before losses occur.”