The UK’s Payments Revolution Can’t Ignore the Fraud Crisis

Monica Eaton, Founder and CEO of Chargebacks911:

“The UK’s Payments Vision Delivery Committee (PVDC) has left fintechs and other companies in the transaction processing industry on the edge of their seat as they recently teased that not only would their official strategy for a “world-leading payments ecosystem” be made public this autumn, but that their Payments Forward Plan would be published by the end of the year. These initiatives, set forth under the sight of the National Payment Vision, will lay the blueprint for a true overhaul of the U.K. payments ecosystem that will champion “innovation, competition and security.”

But it’s this last pillar I believe the Committee should take into special consideration: security. This area of payments is critical to protect honest transactions for merchants not just from criminal parties—who U.K. Finance says stole £1.17 billion through unauthorised and authorised fraud in 2024—but from their loyal customers, who are disputing transactions at such an egregious rate that Visa estimates up to 75% of all chargebacks are instances of chargeback abuse or misuse—otherwise known as friendly fraud.

As the Vision Engagement Group gathers input from stakeholders across the payments lifecycle, my plea to them is that we implement a holistic, all-encompassing approach to fraud and chargeback protection, where regulators, merchants, financial institutions and cardholders are working from a unified set of standards that favor businesses and buyers equally.

The U.K. has long been seen as the benchmark for payments, but chargeback abuse and misuse has been a longstanding stain on our industry since these consumer protections were established a half century ago. This moment in payments history is an opportunity for the U.K. to right a global, 50-year wrong, and is a moment that the U.K. must seize. With this upcoming revamp of the U.K.’s payments infrastructure, correcting today’s fractured dispute resolution framework so that it’s fair and balanced to both merchants and cardholders would set the precedent for the rest of the world, alleviating a problem costing businesses hundreds of billions each year.”