Nearly two-thirds report annual fraud losses of more than $10 million

ZURICH (Sept. 16, 2026) — A new survey of 100 fraud-management, anti-money laundering (AML), and compliance team leaders at banks in Switzerland finds just 55% of those surveyed rate their fraud controls as “effective,” 21 percentage points below the 76% global average. A significantly smaller percentage (11%) describe their existing defenses as “very effective,” which is the lowest share of any country surveyed.

BioCatch, which prevents fraud and financial crime by recognizing patterns in human behavior, commissioned this and 11 other surveys of a combined 1,200 banking leaders across 12 geographies. All respondents are manager level or above and work in their bank’s fraud or financial crime department.

While skeptical of their current controls, Swiss banking leaders still report comparatively slow growth in fraud activity in the country. Only a third of those surveyed in Switzerland report an increase in fraud attempts over the last 12 months, just 1% of those surveyed describe any increase as “significant,” and less than half (42%) report increasing fraud losses at their institution — all among the lowest rates of any country surveyed.

“While Swiss banking leaders report relatively stable rates of fraud, nearly two-thirds (64%) report annual fraud losses in excess $10 million, 13 percentage points above the global average and the highest of any region we surveyed,” BioCatch Director of Global Fraud Intelligence Thomas Peacock said. “Even comparatively slow or little growth in fraud losses in Switzerland builds on an already elevated baseline.”

Reputational damage appears to weigh on Swiss banking leaders even more heavily than financial losses. More than three-quarters (78%) of those surveyed in Switzerland rank their concern over the reputational impact of fraud and scams as greater than or equal to their concern over the financial risk posed by fraud and scams. Perhaps unsurprisingly, C-suite executives seem the most reputation-focused group, with 67% naming it their top concern and none citing financial impact as their primary worry.

Other key findings:

• Swiss banks vulnerable to malware and social engineering: More than half (51%) of respondents name malware and 48% identify coached user journeys among their organization’s biggest fraud-detection weaknesses.
• Reimbursement is generous but voluntary: Sixty percent of those surveyed say their bank reimburses more than half of scam victims, 16 percentage points above the global average. Switzerland has no mandatory reimbursement requirement.
• Technology investment is accelerating: Of those working at organizations with annual fraud losses of at least $25 million, 54% say their institution is actively procuring or implementing new fraud-fighting technologies.
• Social engineering dominates fraud origination: More than half (51%) of respondents rank social media among the top three channels fraudsters use to engage victims in Switzerland, followed closely by phone calls (49%).

Download the report to view the complete results.

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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, AI agent usage, jailbroken devices, and more — as people interact with their digital banking platforms. With these inputs, BioCatch's AI and machine-learning models continuously assess both user intent and any signs of coercion or manipulation throughout every millisecond of every digital banking session, allowing banks to distinguish the criminal from the legitimate in real time. Insights drawn from across the entire network of BioCatch institutions further amplify the power and accuracy of that real-time risk-scoring. As of the end of H1 2026, more than 370 financial institutions deploy BioCatch solutions, analyzing 19 billion user sessions per month and protecting more than 760 million users on more than 1.8 billion devices around the world from fraud and financial crime.

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PR contact:

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