Three-quarters, 78 per cent of organisations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) see online fraud as their biggest challenge, but 79 per cent believe it will continue to grow and become an even bigger threat in five years’ time. This is according a new report by the credit checking company Experian.
In particular, account takeover fraud is experienced by 47 per cent of telecoms and financial services organisations, but 71 per cent believe it will become a more serious issue across EMEA during the next five years.
The study, Experian Decisioning Vision 2020 (DV2020) EMEA, analysed findings from 255 key decision makers from 195 telecoms and financial services organisations in eight regions across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
It also found that identity theft, which is a key issue for 24 per cent of businesses in EMEA, is expected to double in the next five years and become a serious concern for 48 per cent of businesses.
Charles Butterworth, Managing Director, Experian, EMEA, said: “Fraud is becoming more complex with the challenges of multi-channel customer engagement, increased regulations and cross-border activity. Losses to fraud around the world amount to £2.91 trillion a year, the firm claims. The rapid rise in demand for online banking, combined with very little security on devices means there are huge opportunities for cyber criminals, leaving many people and businesses exposed and extremely vulnerable. The cost of fraud could increase significantly.”
Many organisations are struggling to reach a balance between stringent fraud control and a satisfying user experience, according to the credit checking firm. Three in four organisations see fraud integration across internal systems as an issue that urgently needs addressing now, while nearly four in five believe it will still be a major issue in five years’ time. Over 70 per cent stated that protecting the business whilst ensuring a good customer experience would be their biggest future challenge. Indeed, 92 per cent of respondents reported that they were held back from tackling fraud because of fears of impacting the customer experience.
Charles Butterworth said: “Our results demonstrate that protecting the customer relationship is significantly impacting organisations’ ability to tackle fraud. However, if businesses make the right investments in process automation, system integration, and authentication, a comprehensive strategy to fight fraud can be achieved, without sacrificing the customer experience.”
Experian recommends five priorities:
Attain multiple and new sources of data;
Achieve a holistic view of customers;
Provide real-time, consistent and pre-qualified decisions;
Use multi-channel automation across all customer touch points; and
Embrace advanced analytics across the entire organisation.
Organisations can read the full EMEA report and also use Experian’s interactive tool to find out if they are ready for 2020, by visiting www.decisioningvision.com. The Decisioning Vision 2020 report summarises the data extracted from responses to a survey of 255 decision makers from telecom and finance sectors from eight regions in EMEA during October and November 2014.
