Singapore banks face rising fraud as 90% report more attacks

Most institutions say financial harm now outweighs reputational concerns in fraud planning.

Singapore banks are facing a rise in fraud attempts and financial losses, as nine in 10 executives admit that attempts at their institution are increasing.

Three-quarters (75%) also reported rising fraud losses, higher than the regional average of 67% and the global average of 60%, according to a survey commissioned by BioCatch.

Thomas Peacock, director of global fraud intelligence at BioCatch, said Singapore is one of only three of the 12 countries surveyed where most respondents are more concerned about the financial impact of fraud than its reputational damage.

"This is especially pronounced amongst those respondents working in fraud roles, more than three-quarters of whom identify financial losses as their primary concern," Peacock said.

More than half of respondents identified social engineering scams as one of the most common forms of fraud affecting banks in Singapore. 

Amongst compliance professionals, social engineering was ranked as the biggest threat.

Subhashish Bose, global advisory director at BioCatch, said banks need stronger tools to identify when customers are being manipulated by fraudsters.

"The industry's next challenge is building and deploying defences that can distinguish between a genuine customer acting independently and one being manipulated by a criminal," Bose said.

The survey also found that banks in Singapore are less likely than their global peers to reimburse customers for scam-related losses. 

Only 27% of respondents said their institution reimburses more than half of scam losses, compared with the global average of 44%. 

Just 1% said their bank reimburses between 76% and 100% of scam losses, the second-lowest rate amongst the countries surveyed.

Banks are also increasing their focus on behavioural biometrics to strengthen fraud detection. 

Whilst 36% of respondents said their institution has already deployed the technology, three-quarters of those that have not adopted it said their bank is actively evaluating it for future use.

The survey found that 95% of respondents believe their bank is at least mostly prepared to meet new Monetary Authority of Singapore requirements for FAST and PayNow. However, only 14% of fraud professionals said their organisation is fully prepared.

The findings are based on a survey of 100 fraud-management, AML and compliance team leaders at banks in Singapore.