The total figure represents a decrease of 8% compared to 2021, with unauthorised fraud losses across payment cards, remote banking, and cheques totalling £726.9 million. Authorised push payment (APP) fraud losses reached £485.2m, a 17% decrease from the previous year.

The banking and finance industry prevented an additional £1.2bn in unauthorised fraud and continues to invest billions each year in combating fraud and economic crime.

Analysis revealed that 78% of APP fraud cases began online, while 18% were initiated through telecommunications. The majority of fraud cases originate outside the banking sector, prompting calls for increased cross-sector action to tackle the problem at its source.

David Postings, chief executive at UK Finance, said: “Our data also makes clear just how much fraud emanates from online platforms and through telecommunications. The government’s new fraud strategy rightly says we need to focus on stopping it at source and that these other sectors need to do far more to tackle the problem they are facilitating.”

Daniel Holmes, fraud prevention SME at Feedzai, partner of UK Finance’s Annual Fraud Report 2023, added: “We are able to see some positive signs such as overall fraud losses coming down, but rapid changes in technology bring us to a new and critical inflection point in the fraud space.

“The risks remain elevated as fraudsters adapt and use increasingly sophisticated tactics and technology to fool consumers. This report highlights the importance for banks to maintain their focus on combining the latest anti-fraud technology with an approach that puts consumer education at the core.

“We also need a broad coalition of effort from beyond financial services to tackle fraud. This combination will give us the best chance possible to stop fraud at its source, and minimise the impact on consumers.”