The Deep dive: Benelux banks face fraud threat amid instant payments boom

By Puja Sharma

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Benelux banking leaders report increasing fraud attempts and losses

Nearly three-quarters (74%) of those on fraud teams report increasing attempts

A new survey of 100 fraud-management, anti-money laundering (AML), and compliance team leaders at banks in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg finds a majority (61%) report increasing fraud attempts at their bank, while 60% report increasing fraud losses. The percentage of those seeing rising annual losses increases to 74% among those surveyed working directly in fraud roles.

“Perhaps the most interesting takeaway in these Benelux responses is the apparent disconnect between detection and investigation,” BioCatch Director of Global Fraud Intelligence Thomas Peacock said. “While banking leaders in the region report relatively strong confidence in their fraud controls, 82% say their bank still spends more than a day investigating fraud cases, which is significantly above the global average.”

Who is under the radar?

The survey was commissioned by BioCatch, which prevents fraud and financial crime by recognising patterns in human behaviour. While 60% of Benelux respondents outside the C-suite rate their institution’s fraud controls as very effective, that percentage plummets to just 28% among C-level leaders. More positively, nearly three-quarters (74%) of Benelux banking leaders say their bank is actively preparing for the PSR and PSD3 mandates.

“It’s both good and unsurprising to see so many banking leaders in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg proactively preparing for PSR and PSD3,” BioCatch’s Netherlands Country Manager Rob Vink said. “The institutions moving fastest aren’t waiting for rules to formalise but are instead investing now in technologies that can authenticate customers and detect manipulation in real time. The cost of delay in a SEPA environment is simply too high.”

Why does it matter now?

Key findings:

Real-time payment risk: Four in five Benelux banking leaders (80%) say real-time SEPA payments has increased fraud risk. Nearly all respondents (98%) say the transition to Wero, Europe’s new digital payment system, has already at least a partial impact on fraud patterns and volumes.

Slow investigations: More than four in five of those surveyed in the region (82%) say it typically takes their bank more than one day to fully investigate a fraud case. Globally, just 53% of the 1,200 banking leaders surveyed say it takes their bank longer than a day to finish a fraud investigation.

Upgrades are coming: Benelux respondents overwhelmingly say their bank plans to upgrade its fraud prevention technologies, with 92% reporting planned investments and 59% saying their organisation is either already implementing new solutions or actively evaluating vendors.

Reputation over finances: A full two-thirds (66%) of Benelux banking leaders rank the reputational risk of fraud and scams as a greater concern than any financial impact. While significant, this is slightly lower than both the European (69%) and global (71%) averages.