Half of German banking leaders say fraud losses at their organizations are increasing

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

FRANKFURT, Germany (Feb. 11, 2026) — A new survey finds 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 organization, 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 recognizing patterns in human behavior. 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 organized criminal networks eager to exploit any gap in their defenses,” BioCatch Principal Pre-Sales Consultant 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.”

Other 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 reimbursed 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.

Download the report to view the complete results.

###

About BioCatch:

BioCatch prevents fraud and financial crime by recognizing patterns in human behavior, continuously collecting more than 3,000 anonymized data points – keystroke and mouse activity, touch screen behavior, physical device attributes, and more – as people interact with their digital banking platforms. With these inputs, BioCatch's AI and machine-learning models reveal patterns in user behavior and provide device intelligence that, together, distinguish the criminal from the legitimate. The company’s Customer Innovation Board – an industry-led initiative in partnership with American Express, Barclays, Citi Ventures, HSBC, Macquarie Bank, National Australia Bank, and others – collaborates to pioneer innovative ways of leveraging customer relationships for improved fraud detection. Today, more than 30 of the world's largest 100 banks and 340 total financial institutions deploy BioCatch solutions, analyzing 17 billion user sessions per month and protecting more than 660 million people on more than 1.6 billion devices around the world from fraud and financial crime.

###

PR contact:

Mac King
BioCatch director of global marketing communications
Mac.King@BioCatch.com