SBA recommends concrete measures to improve collaborative fraud prevention in Swiss payments
Zurich, April 3rd, 2025 – Several Swiss banks have conducted a preliminary study together with the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) to investigate possible measures for collaborative fraud prevention in Swiss account-to-account payments. The preliminary study recommends pursuing three concrete measures: launch joint awareness campaigns, further evaluate a network-level risk scoring service, and promote cross-product and cross-industry exchange on fraud.
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Technological developments present many opportunities but also new challenges for the financial industry. In recent years, cases of internet fraud have continued to rise both globally and in Switzerland. Fraud attempts and identity theft through "phishing" are at the forefront, as evidenced by the figures from the National Centre for Cybersecurity (NCSC).1
In this context, a group of Swiss banks conducted a preliminary study, together with the SBA and with the support of the management consultancy Acrea. The goal of the preliminary study was to identify and prioritize possible measures to further improve collaborative fraud prevention in Swiss account-to-account payments. The results are based on extensive research on collaborative fraud prevention, interviews, and workshops with fraud, legal, and compliance experts from banks, as well as several interviews with selected providers of fraud management solutions. These activities were conducted between the end of August 2024 and early March 2025.
Recommended Measures
The SBAs preliminary study prioritizes three measures to improve collaborative fraud prevention.
- Launch joint awareness campaigns under the umbrella of PayAttent!on.
This intends to consolidate the resources of banks and existing fraud communication formats and better align prevention measures. The initiative PayAttent!on aims to establish a recognizable brand for fraud prevention in Switzerland with a wide reach to increase fraud awareness in the general public. In the next step, the objectives, planned activities and governance of PayAttent!on should be further substantiated. Joint awareness campaigns are planned from 2026. - Further evaluate a network-level risk scoring service.
Develop a service in which a centralized provider offers a real-time risk score during entry of account-to-account payments data. The computation of the risk score includes, but is not limited to, network-level analysis through machine learning algorithms and could be used by the sender banks at their own discretion, e.g. as an additional signal in the banks' own risk assessment models. As a next step, the banks participating in the preliminary study suggest that the common payment traffic infrastructure Swiss Interbank Clearing (SIC) launch an in-depth feasibility assessment on that matter. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) supports this approach. - Promote cross-product and cross-industry exchange among fraud experts.
By improving the exchange among fraud experts across various payment products (e.g., account-to-account payments, credit and debit cards, Twint, cryptocurrencies) and sectors (e.g., telecommunications companies, marketplaces, social media), knowledge can be exchanged more efficiently, and collaborative fraud prevention measures prioritized and implemented. In a next step, the SBA will carry out a detailed analysis based on the findings of the preliminary study and draw up specific recommendations for optimisation.
The financial industry must continuously evolve to address changing fraud strategies and the growing number of fraud attempts. The proposed collaborative measures from the preliminary study represent important steps to effectively counter these developments.
The full report can be viewed and downloaded on the SBA website.