Nicosia: The total value of fraudulent payment transactions in Cyprus increased by 16% to almost pound 3.7 million in the second half of 2025, despite a 5% decrease in the number of incidents, according to a statistical report published by the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) on Tuesday.
According to Cyprus News Agency, around 14,000 fraud incidents were recorded in the second half of 2025. Despite the increase in the overall value, the CBC notes that payment fraud in Cyprus remained at relatively low levels, with fraud rates for most payment instruments below the euro area average.
In credit transfers, Cyprus recorded the highest average value of a transaction involving a fraud incident among euro area countries. Specifically, each fraud incident involving a credit transfer had an average value of pound 6,300 in Cyprus, compared with pound 1,800 in the euro area. This average was also higher than the average value of credit transfers in Cyprus overall, which stood at pound 4,500. As the CBC notes, this means that "even a limited number of fraud incidents can be associated with significant financial losses."
Credit transfers accounted for pound 2 million, or 56%, of the total value of fraud incidents in Cyprus, while card payments followed with pound 1.6 million, or 43%. In terms of the number of incidents, however, card payments accounted for 93% of the total, with around 13,000 incidents. The CBC notes that, in credit transfers, payment service users, namely consumers and businesses, have historically borne around 95% of total fraud-related losses, while in card payments and electronic money, most losses are borne by other parties involved.
Most card fraud occurs in online transactions. While card payments made in person at points of sale account for 70% of card transactions in Cyprus, only 4% of fraud incidents involved such transactions. By contrast, online payments account for 30% of card transactions but represented 96% of fraud incidents and 94% of the total value of card fraud. The fraud rate for credit card payments was also around 1.5 times higher than that for debit card payments, both in terms of the number and value of transactions.
In credit transfers, the most common form of fraud was "manipulation of the payer by the fraudster," whereby an account holder is deceived into transferring money to an account controlled by the fraudster. This form accounted for 70% of fraud incidents involving credit transfers, while the remaining 30% concerned "unauthorised payment transactions." The CBC notes that instant credit transfers recorded higher fraud rates than conventional transfers. In Cyprus, the fraud rate for instant transfers, in terms of value, was on average around twice that of conventional transfers. The average value of an instant credit transfer involving a fraud incident stood at pound 3,400, more than twice the average value of instant transfers overall, which was pound 1,500.
According to the CBC, Verification of Payee (VoP), which became mandatory in October 2025 for payment service providers in the euro area, is expected to help reduce fraud in electronic credit transfers. Its impact, however, is not yet reflected in the data in the report. Although the majority of transactions in Cyprus are domestic payments, the majority of fraud incidents concern cross-border transactions, the CBC adds.
The CBC also notes that the application of Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) is associated with significantly lower fraud rates. In Cyprus, the fraud rate for card payments without SCA was almost four times higher in terms of the number of transactions and almost three times higher in terms of value, compared with transactions where SCA was applied. At euro area level, the total value of fraud incidents increased by 8%, reaching pound 1.9 billion in the second half of 2025, while the number of incidents remained broadly unchanged at around 9 million.
The CBC further points out that despite the relatively low levels of fraud in Cyprus, the concentration of incidents in online and cross-border transactions, as well as in high-value credit transfers, "makes it necessary to continuously strengthen fraud prevention measures and related risk management mechanisms."