Report on Fraudulent Payment Transactions in Italy - Second half of 2025

20 July 2026

Today Banca d'Italia publishes the update to the Report on Fraudulent Payment Transactions in Italy for the second half of 2025.

The report analyses developments in the risks associated with the use of the main digital payment instruments (credit transfers, payment cards - debit and credit cards - e-money and ATM withdrawals) provided by payment service providers (PSPs) operating in Italy and used in retail payment transactions. The analysis focuses in particular on payment channels (physical POS terminals and e-commerce), geographical scope (domestic and cross-border transactions) and the security measures in place (Strong Customer Authentication - SCA and other safeguards).

In the second half of 2025, the fraud rate - calculated as the ratio of the value of fraudulent transactions to the total value of payment transactions - remained low overall, amounting to 0.003 per cent by value (€3 per €100,000 transacted).

Across the various payment instruments, the fraud rate remained broadly unchanged from the previous half-year for:

  • payment cards (0.017 per cent by value; €17 per €100,000 transacted);
  • ATM withdrawals (0.01 per cent by value; €10 per €100,000 transacted);
  • ordinary credit transfers (0.002 per cent by value; €2 per €100,000 transacted).

The fraud rate declined for:

  • e-money, particularly prepaid cards (€24 per €100,000 transacted, compared with €33 in the previous half-year);
  • instant credit transfers (€28 per €100,000 transacted, compared with €45 in the previous half-year).

The significant decline in the fraud rate for instant credit transfers reflects, among other factors, stronger prevention measures and the awareness initiatives undertaken by PSPs following the entry into force of the Instant Payments Regulation (IPR). The Regulation required them to set up, as of 9 October 2025, a verification of payee (VOP) service for SEPA credit transfers in order to reduce the risk of payments being sent to fraudulent or incorrect beneficiaries.

As for payment channels, the fraud rate for e-commerce transactions continues to be higher than that for transactions carried out at physical POS terminals. However, the gap is narrowing for both payment cards and e-money (prepaid cards).

With regard to geographical scope, cross-border transactions, especially those outside the European Economic Area, have significantly higher fraud rates than domestic transactions, particularly for payment cards and e-money.

As regards security measures, SCA payments show very low rates of fraud and substantially lower levels of risk than non-SCA payments, particularly in cross-border transactions.

Security measures appear to be less effective in cases of payer manipulation - a type of fraud that involves tricking a user into voluntarily making a payment to a fraudulent beneficiary - which remains the predominant form of fraud involving credit transfers.

Payment card and e-money transactions, by contrast, continue to be more affected by unauthorized transactions, including the theft of user data or of the payment instrument itself.