This represents a slight decrease from last year’s figure of £3.8bn, which the NFA says is due to better fraud prevention methods involving card and cheque fraud, which cost the sector £470m.
Fraud in online banking has increased by 14% to £60m over the past year, whilst mortgage fraud costs £1bn and insurance fraud £2.1bn.
Small businesses bear a heavy cost, losing £780m to fraud per year.
In total, fraud costs the UK £38bn per year, of which £12bn is lost to the private sector and £21bn to the public sector.
“Tackling fraud will not solely be achieved through more investigation, prosecution and punishment of fraudsters,” said Dr Bernard Herdan, chief executive of the NFA.
“The NFA is working with its partners to promote greater fraud awareness and self-protection, encourage organisations to adopt fraud proof systems, enable fraud reporting and facilitate better sharing of intelligence on fraudsters.”
Nick Starling (pictured), director of general insurance and health at the ABI, says: “The cost of insurance fraud alone adds an extra £44 a year to the insurance costs of the average household. To protect honest customers, the insurance industry is intensifying its efforts to deter potential fraudsters, and detect more fraud.
“With many frauds cutting across different sectors, the National Fraud Authority has a crucial role to play in spearheading a coordinated national strategy to reduce the impact of fraud on the economy and people’s lives.”
