Fraud prevention is shifting from defence to growth: what changes?

TL;DR: Fraud attempts rose for 67% of respondents in Alloy's State of Fraud Report, while 71% said fraud most commonly occurred in online or mobile banking channels and 92% of financial decision-makers said fraud prevention helps grow business. The pattern shows fraud teams are moving from reactive loss control to adaptive, omnichannel governance that can support product expansion and faster payments.

Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by Alloy: “What's driving fraud in 2026? 5 insights from Alloy's State of Fraud Report”.

By the numbers:

• 67% of respondents reported an increase in fraud attempts over the past year.
• 71% of respondents said that fraud most commonly occurred in online or mobile banking channels.
• 92% of financial decision-makers say fraud prevention efforts help grow their business.

Key questions

Q: What breaks when fraud controls only cover digital channels?

A: Fraud simply shifts to the weakest remaining entry point, such as branches, contact centres, or ATMs, and the organisation mistakes displacement for improvement.

Q: Why can first-party fraud be difficult to classify correctly?

A: Because the surface facts can look legitimate even when the underlying identity or behaviour is manipulated.

Q: How should fraud teams decide when to raise limits or expand channels?

A: They should link those decisions to measured trust, loss, and recovery signals rather than broad confidence in a control stack.

Practitioner guidance

• Strengthen omnichannel detection models Align online, mobile, branch, ATM, and contact-centre signals so a control improvement in one channel does not simply displace fraud to another.
• Reclassify suspected first-party fraud with identity correlation Use application, device, behavioural, and account history together before deciding whether a case is true first-party fraud or a synthetic or hybrid scheme.
• Tie fraud controls to product and limits governance Require fraud sign-off before raising transaction limits, enabling faster payment rails, or expanding into new markets where trust assumptions change.

Bottom line: Fraud is increasingly a governance and growth problem, not only a loss-prevention problem.

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