Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many fraudulent uses of contactless credit cards were reported in the 12 months (a) before and (b) after 15 October 2021.

The government takes the issue of fraud very seriously and is dedicated to protecting the public from this devastating crime.

The government does not collect data on fraudulent uses of contactless credit cards. UK Finance, an industry body representing UK banks and other payment service providers, in its latest published data, found that fraud on contactless cards and devices in the first half of 2022 totalled £15.4 million. However, spending via contactless cards totalled £117 billion during the same period, meaning that fraud as a proportion of overall spending remains low and equivalent to 1.5p in every £100 spent using contactless technology. This compares to 2.7p in every £100 spent using contactless technology in the first half of 2019. Contactless fraud on payment cards and devices represents less than four per cent of overall card fraud losses, while 57 per cent of all card transactions were contactless in 2021.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are responsible for setting the legal contactless payment limits, through the Strong Customer Authentication technical standards. The industry then set their own operational limits up to the legal limit. The £100 legal limit was raised in March 2021 and in October 2021 industry increased their own operational limits to this value. The FCA continue to monitor fraud rates across all payment types and will consider further action as appropriate. More generally, the FCA requires regulated financial services firms to maintain effective systems and controls to prevent the risk that they might be used to further financial crime. This includes controls to prevent fraud.