Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 10 February 2026
415. Deputy Peter 'Chap' Cleere asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the amounts of payment fraud in Ireland in 2022, 2023 and 2024, broken down by payment instrument; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10034/26]
View answerAs the Deputy is aware, payment fraud is an increasingly significant issue and my officials are actively working to address it through a variety of measures at both at the domestic and EU levels.
The Instant Payments Regulation introduced an IBAN/name check, which applies to both instant payments and standard credit transfers and is now in effect. This measure reduces payment fraud by alerting the payer when the name of the account they are sending money to does not match the name they have inputted.
The Payment Services Regulation has recently reached political agreement in the EU. This agreement includes a requirement for search engines and social media platforms to verify that persons advertising financial services on their platforms, have the necessary regulatory authorisation to provide those financial services. This measure is based on a proposal brought forward by Ireland during legislative negotiations.
In addition to financial services advertiser vetting, the Payment Services Regulation includes several other fraud prevention measures such as spending limits, expanded transaction monitoring, fraud information sharing arrangements, anti-fraud education and awareness initiatives, and cross-sector cooperation and data sharing between Payment Service Providers (PSPs), communication service providers, and hosting services for the purpose of detecting and preventing fraud.
Furthermore, the Payment Services Regulation will expand bank liability beyond cases of unauthorised payment fraud to also include cases of impersonation fraud, where the victim is manipulated into authenticating a payment by a person impersonating their bank.
Domestically, the National Payments Strategy makes several recommendations related to payment fraud. One key outcome has been the establishment of the BPFI anti-fraud forum. The anti-fraud forum fosters cross-sectoral cooperation in fraud prevention between key players such as banks, social media platforms, telecommunications, and regulatory authorities.
The Central Bank of Ireland has provided me with the below data, which outlines the amount of payment fraud in Ireland in 2022, 2023, and 2024. As requested by the Deputy this data is broken down by payment instrument. The data shows that the volume of payment fraud has increased year on year, as criminal actors grow increasingly sophisticated in their fraud operations. This data reinforces the need for the anti-fraud actions outlined above and supports the work already underway.
|
Payment Instrument |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
|
Card payment |
€33,796,974.45 |
€44,294,957.30 |
€45,423,067.65 |
|
Cash withdrawal using cards |
€823,840.99 |
€637,391.10 |
€828,264.82 |
|
Cheques |
€1,904,903.78 |
€1,051,734.80 |
€178,694.00 |
|
Credit transfer |
€60,692,782.66 |
€70,719,268.38 |
€67,666,770.06 |
|
Direct debit |
€46,935.98 |
€356,771.55 |
€9,534.49 |
|
E-money payment |
€2,553,842.46 |
€3,361,547.98 |
€25,633,955.07 |
|
Money remittance |
€2,561,712.73 |
€8,216,263.74 |
€20,459,942.31 |
|
Grand Total |
€102,380,993.05 |
€128,637,934.85 |
€160,200,228.40 |
