EBAday 2026: 78% of practitioners believe that data sharing is the most effective way to strengthen fraud risk mitigation.

EBAday 2026: 78% of Practitioners Believe Data Sharing is the Most Effective Way to Enhance Fraud Risk Mitigation

Lead: During the afternoon discussion session at the EBAday 2026 Annual Summit, payment and transaction banking executives focused on feasible solutions for fraud management. An interactive live poll showed that 78% of attendees believe data sharing is the most effective way to strengthen fraud risk mitigation. However, regulatory compliance, privacy protection, and cross-institutional collaboration remain core challenges for the industry.

Industry Background

With the rapid global proliferation of real-time payments, authorized push payment fraud and various types of financial crime methods are continuously escalating. Regulatory bodies such as the UK Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) have introduced mandatory full reimbursement rules, requiring payment firms to compensate victims of authorized fraud. This regulatory change has prompted banks and payment institutions to reassess their fraud prevention strategies, shifting from passive detection to active prevention.

Current Developments

In a panel discussion featuring experts from institutions including EBA Clearing, BAFT, Erste Group, Nasdaq Verafin, SCHUFA, and Banfico, an on-site poll revealed key industry challenges:

• Data integration, regulatory barriers, and real-time adaptive fraud control were identified as the top challenges.
• 39% of participants believe that regulation is the biggest obstacle to cross-border fraud intelligence sharing, with privacy (29%) and collaboration (24%) following closely.
• Regarding the "definition of effective fraud governance for 2026 and beyond," 64% of votes selected intelligence, far surpassing agility, accountability, and resilience.
• 78% of voters believe that data sharing is the most effective way to enhance fraud risk mitigation.

Panelists agreed that the PSR's APP fraud regulation is not only a challenge but also a catalyst for industry change. Cristian Cengher from Erste Group emphasized that banks need to shift from "detecting fraud" to "preventing fraud," intervening before customers initiate transactions. Kamlesh Harry from Nasdaq Verafin pointed out that data is the foundation, but data from a single institution is limited. Only by expanding datasets through partnerships or alliances can the value of the ecosystem be realized. He also called for the establishment of a "safe harbor" to facilitate data sharing. Olivier Jolyon from EBA CLEARING clarified that although regulation is often seen as an obstacle, the APP fraud regulation actually incentivizes data sharing; the key issue is what to share and how to share it, while ensuring compliance with privacy regulations such as GDPR.

Impact on the Financial System

• The promotion of data sharing in fraud prevention will have a profound impact on the financial system:- Payment Efficiency: More accurate real-time fraud detection reduces false positives and accelerates transaction processing speeds.
• Financial Inclusion: Reducing fraud-related financial losses enhances user trust in digital payments, particularly benefiting vulnerable groups new to the market.
• Banking Competition: Smaller banks can gain risk insights comparable to larger banks by participating in data alliances, narrowing the technology gap.
• Compliance Costs: A unified data sharing framework may reduce the compliance burden of fragmented regulations, though initial integration costs are high.
• Risk Management: Shifting from point-based defense to ecosystem collaboration, real-time sharing of fraud signals enables earlier warnings.

Challenges Ahead

Despite clear consensus, the industry still faces multiple obstacles:

• Data Privacy: Regulations such as GDPR restrict the cross-border and cross-institutional sharing of personal data. Privacy-preserving technologies (e.g., differential privacy, federated learning) must be designed to balance compliance with effectiveness.
• Cybersecurity: Data sharing platforms themselves can become targets, requiring strengthened security measures and identity authentication.
• Technical Integration: Different banks have varying data formats and system architectures, necessitating standardized interfaces (e.g., APIs) and governance rules.
• Regulatory Uncertainty: Inconsistent regulatory requirements across countries create legal conflicts for cross-border data sharing, such as immature "safe harbor" mechanisms.
• Competition and Trust: Data sharing among banks may involve commercially sensitive information, requiring mechanisms for mutual trust and antitrust compliance.

Future Outlook

In the next three to five years, fraud risk mitigation will show the following trends:

1. Data Sharing Moves from Option to Necessity: With the spread of regulations like PSR, more jurisdictions will mandate payment institutions to participate in data sharing alliances. 2. AI and Intelligent Analytics Drive: The 64% "intelligence" share in the vote indicates that machine learning will become a key tool for interpreting shared data and generating real-time risk scores. 3. Deepening Public-Private Cooperation: Regulators, industry associations, and private enterprises must jointly develop data sharing standards and "safe harbor" rules, for example, along the lines of the Europol financial intelligence sharing model. 4. Evolution of Technical Architecture: Privacy-enhancing technologies (such as secure multi-party computation and homomorphic encryption) will make shared data usable but invisible, alleviating privacy concerns. 5. Full Transition from Detection to Prevention: Financial services will embed preventive fraud controls, implementing dynamic risk assessments throughout the entire user interaction lifecycle.

In summary, the votes and discussions at EBAday 2026 made it clear that data sharing is no longer an option, but a cornerstone of future fraud risk mitigation. The industry must, under regulatory guidance, unlock the value of shared data through collaboration, technological innovation, and standardization, while properly addressing privacy and security challenges.