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Open Banking Limited (OBL) has published data showing that fraud in UK open banking is lower than the industry average, while arguing that wider use of Transaction Risk Indicators (TRIs) would boost ecosystem resilience.
In its latest financial crime update, published on December 8, 2025, OBL identified a “downward trend” in open banking fraud, with both the volume and value of fraud declining on a year-on-year basis.
In H1 2025, open banking-initiated payment fraud accounted for 0.013 percent of transactions by volume, compared to 0.045 percent across the wider payments industry.
Since OBL’s December 2024 report, open banking-initiated payment fraud has fallen in volume from 0.021 percent, while across the wider industry fraud has increased from 0.037 percent.
A similar divergence is visible by value. Over the same period, the value of open banking fraud fell from 0.034 percent to 0.020 percent of total transaction value. By contrast, the value of fraud across the wider payments industry remained broadly stable, edging down to 0.027 percent.
OBL said the data demonstrates that open banking continues to show resilience against fraud, with rates remaining lower than those seen in alternative payment systems and products.
Areas of challenge remain
One metric where open banking fraud continues to exceed the wider payments industry is in the average value of a fraudulent transaction, which currently stands at £707, almost three times the industry average of £259.
OBL attributes this differential to the higher average transaction values associated with typical open banking use cases, such as account-to-account transfers and savings movements, which inherently concentrate fraud risk in fewer, higher-value transactions.
OBL also drew attention to the high percentage of authorised push payment (APP) fraud versus unauthorised fraud using open banking channels.
In H1 2025, 74 percent of open banking fraud was APP fraud. By volume, this accounted for 0.009 percent of transactions, almost double the industry average of 0.005 percent.
By value, open banking APP fraud was also higher than the industry average, at 0.016 percent versus 0.011 percent.
“Notably, APP fraud makes up most of open banking fraud, whereas broader industry data shows a heavier concentration of unauthorised fraud, particularly remote purchase fraud,” said OBL.
“This distinction underscores the need for targeted fraud prevention strategies that reflect the unique risk profile of open banking transactions.”
OBL renews call for use of Transaction Risk Indicators (TRIs)
In response, OBL renewed its call for greater use of Transaction Risk Indicators (TRIs) by payment initiation service providers (PISPs) and account servicing payment service providers (ASPSPs).
It argued that closer collaboration and richer data exchange will be critical to maintaining the ecosystem’s resilience as open banking volumes continue to grow.
TRIs are structured data elements passed from PISPs to ASPSPs at the point of payment initiation, combining ISO 20022 and ISO 18245 fields with OBL-specific contextual indicators.
The aim is to provide additional insight into the purpose and context of a transaction, enabling more effective fraud detection while reducing false positives.
OBL said a recent pilot involving a number of PISPs and ASPSPs found that TRIs were effective in identifying fraudulent payments initiated via open banking, while also helping to minimise unnecessary transaction blocks.
“OBL agrees that the best way to combat fraud within payment journeys is the better exchange and use of data and tools that more accurately spot fraud,” it said.
“TRIs are one such data delivery element that can help in the fight against fraud.”
Could the use of TRIs become mandatory?
Although there is precedent for mandating enhanced transaction data in parts of the UK payments landscape, a similar requirement for open banking channels appears unlikely in the near term.
In 2024, the Bank of England (BoE) consulted on mandating enhanced ISO 20022 data in CHAPS. Responding to the consultation in September 2025, the BoE confirmed that it will not extend mandatory enhanced data requirements to payment initiation channels outside the control of CHAPS direct participants in 2027.
However, the Bank has signalled strong support for a more harmonised approach to ISO 20022 across retail payment systems operated by Pay.UK, including Faster Payments, which underpins the majority of open banking payments.
It has also indicated that CHAPS direct participants will play a leading role in driving wider adoption of enhanced data standards.
Taken together, this suggests that although the use of TRIs is unlikely to become formally mandatory in the short term, regulatory and supervisory expectations are moving steadily towards richer, more standardised transaction data.
For open banking participants, the use of enhanced risk indicators may therefore become less a competitive differentiator and more a baseline expectation as fraud pressures intensify.
