Despite concerted efforts by banks to combat fraud, there is little sign that banking customers feel more optimistic, with over a third of British banking customers (34 percent) saying they now feel more at risk of banking fraud than ever before – the most pessimistic response amongst European respondents. Sweden, France, Germany and Italy have the lowest proportion who feel more at risk from fraud on their bank account than before (22 percent of respondents in Sweden, 25 percent of respondents in France and 28 percent in both Italy and Germany), according to international research conducted by information intelligence and security company Detica.
Outside Europe, the only country polling a higher percentage than Britain was Australia, where a sizeable 43 percent felt more at risk than ever before, compared to 33 percent of Americans and 29 percent of Canadians.
The survey of over 9,000 adults in North America, Europe and Australia was on behalf of Detica NetReveal by Ipsos MORI to gain understanding of the international retail banking fraud landscape and to gauge customer reactions to fraud and its prevention.
When asked how concerned they are that their bank account might be at risk of fraud, around three in five British respondents (60 percent) said they were fairly or very concerned. The level of concern was lower in Sweden, the USA, Canada and France (15 percent, 48 percent, 49 percent and 54 percent respectively), but comparable in Italy (61 percent) and the highest in Australia, where the figure reached 70 percent.
And the majority of British bank customers put the blame squarely on banks’ shoulders, with 61 percent saying all or most of the responsibility for protecting accounts from fraud lies with the banks. In terms of how the banks dealt with fraud and whether British banking customers feel happy with the assistance their bank provides, fewer than half (43 percent) agree that their bank has given them information and advice to keep their money safe and almost half (49 percent) would like to know more about their bank’s fraud prevention solutions.
It isn’t all bad news for banks, however, with British customers remaining loyal. Although one in five (20 percent) experience actual or suspected fraud, a very substantial 91 percent of these did not act with their feet and walk away to another provider as a result. Consumer power and a propensity to move their account was very much higher in other countries, with 32 percent in Italy, 26 percent in Spain, 22 percent in Germany and 14 percent in Sweden switching bank. Only the French, Americans and Canadians showed a similar low propensity to the British in moving their account to another bank as a result of experiencing fraud.
Imam Hoque, Director of Detica NetReveal said: “Despite the significant progress that the retail banks have made, fraud clearly remains of real concern for a significant number of British banking customers. And although British customers are relatively loyal at the moment, the banks have a challenge ahead of them both to engage customers in the long term fight against fraud and also to ensure the emerging European trend of consumers voting with their feet doesn’t repeat itself here.”
Detica NetReveal is a enterprise fraud risk management solution used by financial services companies to manage fraud risk by uncovering networks of suspicious behaviour, finding hidden relationships between people and data.
About the research
Detica NetReveal commissioned Ipsos MORI to survey a representative sample of over 9,000 adults aged between 16 and 64 years old in its core markets of Britain, USA, Canada, Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden. A representative sample of 1,029 adults was surveyed in Great Britain. Participants were asked to rate their concerns on a number of fraud-related retail banking issues, including personal fraud risk, previous fraud experience and fraud prevention. Interviews were conducted online during April 2010 and the survey results analysed recently.
