FIS Payment Risk Survey found that high among the many complexities and challenges of 2020 among merchants was a rise in e-commerce fraud and chargebacks.

Worldpay from FIS recently teamed up with Forrester to survey omnichannel and enterprise merchants from 11 countries, to explore the biggest payment challenges merchants faced in 2020, and how they’re mitigating those risks in 2021.

Insights from the findings of the study was shared in an on-demand webinar by experts from FIS and Forrester.

Among the issues discussed in the webinar were:

  • How merchants are fighting fraud and mitigating chargebacks
  • Today’s fraud landscape and the challenges other merchants are facing
  • Opportunities to balance between customer experience and maximizing revenue

Exploring the latest payment fraud challenges that merchants are facing and their risk management strategies, the global study provided some key findings for Asia Pacific:

  • Synthetic identity fraud is a growing trend. 61% of merchants in APAC reported higher rates of such fraud – the most among all regions globally
  • 84% of merchants in APAC reported losses in revenue due to payment fraud; in Singapore this is slightly higher with 9 in 10 merchants reporting losses
  • 57% of merchants in APAC reported substantial or significant impacts in costs for remediation of payment fraud victims in 2020
  • More than 1 in 4 merchants (28%) in APAC are challenged by efforts required to implement payment security solutions like tokenization and 3DS2
  • When asked what payment initiatives they will prioritize in 2021, improving fraud detection and mitigation (44%) came up top for APAC merchants, above other initiatives such as improving payment experience on mobile (40%) and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards (38%).

Phil Pomford, General Manager for Global eCommerce, APAC, WorldPay from FIS, commented: “As payments have evolved, so has fraud. Fraudsters have stepped in to capitalize on the pandemic’s disruption and have become more sophisticated as they seek targets online. Merchants have taken a direct hit, with Worldpay from FIS’ research showing that 84% of APAC firms lost revenue due to payment fraud in 2020.”

The good news, however, is that almost all firms (96%) surveyed are dedicating resources to combatting and managing risk, he said. Furthermore, merchants in APAC has identified improving fraud detection and mitigation as the top priority in 2021.

Pomford added a warning: “However, if there’s one definitive thing about payments fraud, it’s that it is constantly changing and requires ongoing diligence to defeat. Having robust solutions in authentication, tokenization or chargeback solutions represents only one piece of the revenue protection puzzle.”

He advised merchants to strike the right balance between managing risk and enhancing consumer experience. “Fraud has far reaching consequences, and merchants who approach payment security as a holistic challenge will come out stronger in the long run.”