Fraud value rose faster than transaction count
The Central Bank of Ireland reported €179.04 million in fraudulent payments during 2025, up 27.2% from €140.80 million in 2024. Approximately one in every 10,000 payment transactions was affected, while the number of fraudulent transactions increased only marginally. [1] [2]
The divergence between count and value matters: a relatively stable number of incidents can still create a materially larger loss if criminals concentrate on higher-value payment types or exploit authorised transfers. [1] [2]
Authorised and cross-border payments dominate the value
Authorised push-payment fraud accounted for 45% of total fraud value, or €74.86 million, compared with 35.2% in 2024. Cross-border payments represented 69.8% of fraudulent payment value, or €124.89 million, an increase of 6.3 percentage points. [1]
These are national aggregates reported by Irish-resident payment service providers. They describe the market-wide mix and should not be treated as a loss forecast for any particular bank, merchant or customer. [1] [2]
Controls need to follow the payment route
Customer warnings remain useful, but authorised-payment and cross-border exposure also require beneficiary intelligence, risk-based friction, rapid institution-to-institution coordination and clear victim-support processes. [1] [2]
Teams should measure not only blocked attempts but also the speed of escalation, beneficiary-account response and recovery. finorasjournal presents these observations as general operational analysis, not institution-specific security advice. [1] [2]