Overall spend on Australian cards in 2020 was down by 2.2% – the first recorded drop – but the overall value of card fraud increased by 0.6%.
Australian Payments Network (AusPayNet), the payments industry self-regulatory body, released its annual report on payments, which explores trends in 2020.
It states Overall spend on Australian cards dropped to AUD 801.7bn, which is the first time it has recorded a decline.
Despite this, it stated overall card fraud increased to AUD 467.6m. This increase in fraud value comes after 2019 had experienced a 19.5% drop.
Card-not-present fraud, which AusPayNet said mainly impacted online transactions, rose by 3.8% to reached AUD 418.9m.
However, other types of card fraud decreased in popularity, with lost-and-stolen card fraud dropping by 25% to AUD 26.3m, which marks the lowest level since 2012. Counterfeit and skimming fraud also slumped by 34% to AUD 11.1m – a record low.
AusPayNet CEO Andy White said, “Indications are that many of the spending patterns and trends established during COVID will remain once we emerge from the pandemic – that is likely to be the case with online shopping.
“The good news is that the industry-wide initiative put in place to mitigate CNP fraud two years ago has had a significant impact. Among other things, it encourages more stringent customer authentication by merchants and issuers, which can very quickly reduce fraud.”
AusPayNet stated the card fraud rate in 2020 was 5.8 cents for every AUD 100 spent on cards.
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