UK Finance is the trade association for the UK banking and financial services industry. Formed in 2017 through the merger of several industry bodies, it represents around 300 firms including banks, lenders, payment providers and financial institutions.
UK Finance’s latest Annual Fraud Report 2026 shows its members reported that criminals stole £1.28 billion through payment fraud in 2025, an increase of four per cent (4%). It demonstrates how fraud continues to operate on an industrial scale and is a national security threat.
Ruth Ray, Managing Director, Economic Crime, at UK Finance commented in the Foreward on the report:
“Our 2025 data reveals the scale of the threat and the fact the problem is not going away. On average eight people were defrauded every minute, with almost £2,500 lost in that same minute. Fraud operates on an industrial scale, moving fast and adapting quickly. The UK’s financial sector is a global lead in the fight against fraud, but we cannot remain the sole line of defence. In 2025 alone, banks prevented £1.68 billion in unauthorised payment fraud, equivalent to 70p in every £1 of attempted attacks. Despite this £1.28 billion was stolen through various forms of payment fraud.”
UK Finance’s industry data on the scale of fraud continues to highlight unrelenting attack levels from criminals in 2025. Both the total number of fraud cases reported to UK Finance members and the value of money lost to fraud recorded the second consecutive year of growth. Ever increasingly sophisticated methods are being used.
Last year’s increase took the number of cases across both authorised and unauthorised fraud to a new record high of nearly 4.1 million, while losses, at £1.28 billion, were the highest since the peak during the pandemic in 2021 . This represents year-on-year increases of 11 per cent (number of cases) and four per cent (value of the losses), respectively.
Industry reaction to the Report Findings
Online security expert, Clive Summerfield, CEO of FARx, the fused-biometrics company, comments:
“It is incumbent on voice platform providers and social media to embed synthetic voice detection as a fundamental feature of their services. In much the same way that we install spam filters, antivirus software, and firewalls on PCs to deter scammers and hacking attacks, AI-based synthetic voice detection should be mandatory to block scammers and hackers from targeting businesses and individuals through this insidious and evolving cybersecurity threat.”
“I am not surprised by the UK Finance findings. Last year, UK Finance predicted that AI-generated fraud would become the fastest-growing risk. That prediction is now coming true.
“As we have seen from the report, individuals, businesses and increasingly the government are being scammed by ever-evolving AI cloned voice attacks. Those attacks will only become more sophisticated as AI synthetic voice technology advances and grows more convincing. Not surprising that cloned voice is fast emerging as the number one AI cybersecurity threat vector.
“Synthetic voice attacks are not only costly for businesses but also significantly affect individual users. Who can they trust when you cannot trust the voice on the other end of the phone or conference call? It is incumbent on voice platform providers and social media to embed synthetic voice detection as a fundamental feature of their services. In much the same way that we install spam filters, antivirus software, and firewalls on PCs to deter scammers and hacking attacks, AI-based synthetic voice detection should be mandatory to block scammers and hackers from targeting businesses and individuals through this insidious and evolving cybersecurity threat.”
