As long as banks have been around, they’ve been tremendously attractive targets for “robbers.”
The tit-for-tat between bad actors chasing after bank deposits has evolved each century — and increasingly each decade. While banks have long won the war, fraudsters and scammers are increasingly winning the side skirmishes, as today’s online world offers more hyperconnected vulnerabilities to exploit.
This, as the new report, “The State of Fraud and Financial Crime in the U.S.,” a PYMNTS and Featurespace collaboration, found that 62% of large banks are dealing with increases in financial crimes.
The frequency and intensity of attacks has gotten to the point that large financial institutions (FIs) with over $5 billion in assets collectively bore nearly $120 million in average fraud costs for 2022.
The issue is affecting customers as well. Earlier this week, the fastest man in the world and legendary gold medal winning Olympian Usain Bolt reportedly lost $12 million due to a bank scam.
Under Siege and Overwhelmed
With criminals constantly probing for vulnerabilities and looking to exploit any weaknesses, what can FIs do to protect themselves and their customers?
In an unfortunate twist, some executives report finding themselves succumbing to a pervasive sense of helplessness, overwhelmed by the scale of fraud prevention demands and complexity of the challenge in today’s interoperable global world, where bad actors can strike from anywhere and at any…
