Real-time payments linked to rising fraud in Germany

By Puja Sharma

Two-thirds estimate their bank’s annual fraud losses exceed $10 million

A new survey finds that the majority of fraud-management, anti-money laundering (AML), and compliance team leaders at German banks see fraud attempts against their institution increasing every year. Half of all those surveyed, 65% of those on fraud teams, and 67% of German banking C-suite executives report fraud losses increasing at their organisation, while 66% estimate their bank’s annual fraud losses exceed $10 million (or €8.52 million).

“German banking leaders appear to attribute some of this increase in fraud to legislation,” BioCatch Director of Global Fraud Intelligence Thomas Peacock said. “More than half of those surveyed in Germany believe fraud risk increased following the implementation of real-time SEPA payments, which became mandatory in 2025.”

The survey was commissioned by BioCatch, which prevents financial crime by recognising patterns in human behaviour. Despite increasing fraud attempts and — for at least half of those surveyed — increasing fraud losses at German banks, nearly three-fourths of respondents still said they believed their current fraud controls were effective. And yet, 76% of German banking leaders said their institution was considering upgrading its existing controls, while 11% have already begun the procurement and implementation process.

“German banks today must weather an unrelenting surge in fraud attempts, new vulnerabilities exposed by the rapid expansion of instant payments, readily accessible AI tools supercharging both the scale and precision of attacks, and increasingly organised criminal networks eager to exploit any gap in their defences,” BioCatch Country Manager for Germany Mathias Schollmeyer said. “The pressure on German financial institutions has never been greater. Their customers deserve preventive, trusted solutions to help their banks better protect them in this increasingly complex fraud landscape.”

Key findings:

• Manual reviews remain the norm:German respondents reported reviewing the majority of fraud cases manually, notably above the continental average of 46%.
• Reimbursement still infrequent but expected to increase:Only 36% of those surveyed said their bank currently reimburses at least half their customers who fall victim to a scam, well below both European counterparts (53%) and the global average (44%). Nearly three-fourths of respondents, however, reported their bank taking proactive action to change reimbursement policies ahead of new requirements under PSD3/PSR.
• No fear of agentic AI:A resounding 84% of German banking leaders said they felt their bank was prepared for agentic AI attacks.