A report by payment solutions provider EastNets has highlighted that banks are in growing risk of SWIFT payment messaging fraud.

SWIFT refers to a network through which participating financial institutions send and receive information on financial transactions.

In the survey, EastNets surveyed 200 banks, most of which have faced an electronic SWIFT fraud attempt since 2016.

The report also noted that two-thirds of banks said that such attempts have been increasing since 2016.

Furthermore, only two-fifths of banks expressed confidence that they identified every electronic SWIFT fraud in the last three years.

Notably, a ‘significant portion’ of these financial institutions have no prevention policy to combat SWIFT cyber fraud.

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A survey conducted earlier this year also highlighted lack of proper co-ordination among bank’s internal departments to address the issue.

EastNets chief strategy and product officer and author of the report Deya Innab said: “Based on what we know about SWIFT fraud we believe banks’ optimism reveals overconfidence and a potential for higher risks in the future.”

A secondary research in the EastNets report found that the industry has incurred at least $380m in combined losses due to SWIFT payment fraud.

It noted that 60% of the US banks were targeted by SWIFT frauds. The figure increases to 100% in the Asia Pacific region.