Criminals stole more than £500 million from UK bank account holders in the first half of 2018, according to industry figures.

Bank trade group UK Finance says that £145 million of the losses were down to authorised push payment (APP) scams, where crooks trick victims into sending money to another account.

The remaining £358 million was lost in unauthorised fraud, where fraudulent transactions are made without the bank account holder’s knowledge. UK Finance says that despite the losses, the industry managed to prevent over £700 million in unauthorised fraud.

Customers who experience unauthorised fraud are usually refunded by their banks. However, APP victims generally do not.

Mobile banking concept

In June the Financial Conduct Authority proposed updating its complaint handling rules to help victims of APP scams after an initial review of the way banks handle them found procedures were inconsistent, that their existing fraud detection systems could not easily detect APP fraud, and they didn’t collect enough data.

Katy Worobec, MD, economic crime, UK Finance, says: “The finance industry is committed to fighting back, investing millions in security systems and cyber defences to protect customers.

“We have brought in new standards to ensure scam victims get the help they need from their payments provider; we are supporting law enforcement in disrupting the criminals and freezing stolen money; and we are assisting the government in improving intelligence sharing to extinguish the threat.”

– Source: finextra.com –

The UK’s love affair with contactless payments continues to flourish, with almost one in two transactions now tap and pay, according to Mastercard figures.

There has been a 95% increase in contactless transaction in the year to date, with the technology now representing 46% of all transactions every month, says Mastercard.

This puts the UK at the forefront of the tap and pay revolution, with Transport for London cited as a major driving force for adoption.

Now more than a decade old, the technology is also shedding its reputation as as security problem. Long gone are the days when wary users covered their wallets in tin foil, with most people now believing contactless is at least as safe as traditional payment methods.

In fact, a recent survey from GoCompare found that nearly half of Brits now want the contactless limit increased from £30 to at least £50.

“The UK is a global leader in its use of contactless. The technology has fast become synonymous with our everyday payments. It is faster and easier to use than cash and yet it affords more security. As such the adoption and trust in contactless can only increase from here,” says Mark Barnett, president, Mastercard in the UK.

– Finextra –

Cards now account for more than three quarters of the value of retail purchases in the UK, as contactless payments continue to eat into cash’s share of the pie.

According to the latest British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) annual payments survey, cards were used to pay for £277.1 billion worth of goods in 2017, accounting for 76% of retail sales volume.

Meanwhile, cash continued its decline both as a share of retail transactions (down 0.5%) and value of sales (down 1.2%), where it now make up just 22%.

The BRC says that the rise of card payments is hitting its members in the pocket, with retailers spending an extra £170 million to process payments in 2017. Fees are now approaching £1 billion a year.

The group is blaming the rise entirely on the card schemes, claiming that fees have jumped by 39% in 2017, and is calling on the government and regulator to step in.

– Finextra –

For the last several years the United States has been lagging behind most of the rest of the world when it comes to contactless payments technology, but all of that is starting to change.

The United States is poised to make a great leap in contactless payments and as it does it will improve the experience for everyone in the payments chain – especially for consumers making small purchases, such as a coffee or a fill-up at the gas station.

U.S. Contactless payments by the numbers:

• 46% of transactions occur at contactless enabled merchants
• 70% of locations are capable of contactless
• 80% of U.S. Visa® transactions occur face-to-face
• 98% of face-to-face transactions in mature contactless markets originate on card

– Source: atmmarketplace.com –

Juniper Research predicted in a new report that the biggest shift coming in the mobile payment security industry is a movement toward software-based methods for verification that rely on standard smartphone components.

In a press release, the market research firm forecasted that users of these methods will jump from an estimated 429 million this year to 1.5 billion by 2023. Juniper said it will usher in an era in which mobile payment authentication uses biometrics based on individuals’ device usage patterns.

“Mobile payment security will broaden hugely thanks to the implementation of pure software solutions,” remarked report author James Moar. “The key battle now will be to convince users, particularly those in Europe and North America, that these methods are just as secure as traditional hardware-based security.”

According to Juniper, with the iPhone X and other smartphones offering facial and eye-based identification, fingerprint sensors will decline as a proportion of smartphone biometric hardware, from just over 95 percent in 2018 to below 90 percent by 2023. Also due to the increase in software-based biometrics, fingerprint sensor use will become much more contextual rather than the default biometric option, Juniper said in the press release.

Juniper’s prediction seems to ring true considering Samsung Electronics. Despite launching facial recognition before Apple later took the spotlight with its Face ID, Samsung is still working to beef up its capabilities in this area. It is reportedly working with Israeli startup Mantis Vision and camera module firm Namuga to integrate 3D sensing software into the camera of its next-generation Galaxy S smartphone.

And that’s not the only biometric identifier with which Samsung is playing. The company also applied for a patent for a device authentication method that detects users’ blood pressure. According to the patent, “the arterial conduction paths of different users are almost never identical.” Samsung is reportedly looking into replacing static and hackable PINs and passwords with a one-two authentication combo by pairing users’ blood pressure with their unique fingerprints.

– Source: pymnts.com –