Peer-to-peer (P2P) payment platforms have seen a drop-off in usage as sophisticated fraud risks continue to cause havoc and consumers tighten their risk expectations for online transactions.

A whitepaper produced by research firm Aite-Novarica for LexisNexis Risk Solutions titled Multifaceted Fraud Attacks: Behavioral Biometrics as a Defensive Tool found that despite an uptake in usage of P2P payment platforms since the COVID-19 pandemic, this has dropped off by seven per cent in Singapore.

Of this amount, 35 per cent of survey respondents said this change was due to fraud concerns and 19 per cent said it was due to experiencing a fraudulent transaction; this was on par with the experience in the U.S., but higher than that in the UK.

“Fraud executives are deeply concerned about increasing fraud attacks and the effect it has on consumers and their organisation’s reputation when losses occur,” Stephen Topliss, Vice President, Fraud and Identity Strategy att Lexisnexis Risk Solutions, said.

“Businesses need the most multi-dimensional view available of an identity to make high-quality decisions. Behavioural biometrics allows businesses to provide an optimal customer experience by passively authenticating them and only inserting additional steps into their journey if there is a higher risk.”

The whitepaper also said that 85 per cent of the fraud executives surveyed said online fraud losses had increased in 2022, with 39 per cent seeing a rise of more than 10 per cent. This was similar on mobile, where 86 per cent of executives reported an increase and 32 per cent saw an increase of more than 10 per cent.

“The adoption of behavioral biometrics technology is appealing from both a fraud prevention and customer experience perspective,” Jim Mortensen, Strategic Advisor at Aite-Novarica Group, said.

“The capability is attractive as it authenticates users on a passive basis, in the background, and requires no active intervention by the customer beyond their normal use of the app or website.”