Advisory & Strategy

Last week, five of our consultants visited the annual event NextGen Nordics in Stockholm, hosted by FinExtra. The event brings together Nordic stakeholders within the Payments landscape – from banks and authorities to PSPs and FinTech companies. Some of the included themes were VoP/CoP, DORA, Open Finance, and regulation vs. innovation. In this article, we want to highlight our key takeaways from the events and what we believe will be important moving forward.

In our previous article, “Fraud in the Modern Payment Landscape,” we discussed how fraud has become a structural challenge in the payment ecosystem. Faster and more seamless payments leave opportunities for fraudsters to exploit gaps in the system. One major threat is Authorized Push Payment (APP) fraud. Since 2020, cases have sharply risen where victims are manipulated into executing fraudulent payments. Unlike credential theft, this bypasses many traditional controls, such as multi-factor authentication.

The rapid digitalization of payments has revolutionized money transfers, offering speed, convenience, and accessibility. However, as traditional transactions shift closer toward real-time capabilities, fraudsters are adapting just as quickly—exploiting new vulnerabilities to sustain illegal activities. Payment fraud has evolved into a critical threat, not just for consumers, but for the stability of the financial ecosystem. In Sweden alone, reports from the Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen) indicated that payment fraud nearly tripled between mid-2020 and mid-2023, emphasizing the importance of strong fraud prevention. This whitepaper explores the evolving nature of fraud in the modern payment landscape, its broader impact, and the necessary adaptations within the industry to mitigate these risks.