Paris (AFP)

The year 2020, marked by its long weeks of confinement, resulted in France by an acceleration in the use of dematerialized means of payment, with a "spectacular" increase in contactless, to the detriment in particular of checks and cash .

"Containment was an accelerator of trends that pre-existed in the change in the payment habits of the French", declared François Villeroy de Galhau, the governor of the institution, presenting the last report of the Observatory of the security of the means of payment.

More precisely, "the confinement stimulated the use of dematerialized" and digital payment methods, as opposed to "physical" means of payment such as payment by card in contact mode, checks, tickets or coins, a- he stressed.

The volume of dematerialized and digital means thus swelled during confinement to represent up to two thirds of payment transactions, excluding the use of cash.

After deconfinement, it fell to around 60% - more than the 50% measured by the Banque de France in 2018.

In fact, distance selling increased sharply during confinement, a consequence of the closure of a large number of businesses.

After deconfinement, distance selling "tended to return to its previous level. On the other hand, the increase in contactless (card payment) mode (thanks in particular to the raising of the ceiling from 30 to 50 euros) ) is spectacular ", underlined Mr. Villeroy de Galhau.

- New payment habits -

However, there is no feeling of an increase in fraud, according to feedback from banking networks or merchant associations, said Mr. Villeroy de Galhau.

As for the 2019 assessment of the security of means of payment and fraud in France, "the level of fraud observed on payments issued in France remained under control on all payment instruments, with the exception of checks", explains the Banque de France.

"While the card remains by far the most widely used cashless payment method and accounts for 60% of the number of cashless transactions, its fraud rate remains stable and close to its lowest historical level, at 0.064%", ie. 'equivalent of one euro of fraud for 1,560 euros of operations, underlines the institution.

The fraud rate on local operations, including contactless, remains very low.

Regarding remote payments, it has fallen for the eighth year in a row thanks to stricter security rules today, details the Observatory.

- The check, "the most defrauded" means -

Likewise, the transfer and direct debit, which at the end of 2019 represented 16% of non-cash payments (payments other than cash), still have "extremely low" fraud rates, it is added.

Fraud on transfers is progressing but remains modest (162 million euros) with regard to the flows issued and its rate remains at the lowest level among the means of payment (1 euro of fraud for 160,000 euros of transfers).

Direct debits fraud fell sharply (-81%) to € 11 million in 2019.

Conversely, check fraud continued to grow "very significantly" to reach 540 million euros.

It represents 46% of total fraud against cashless means of payment, even though checks are used less and less (6% of transactions).

"This progression, continued over the past three years, now makes the check the most defrauded means of payment both in absolute value and in fraud rate," the report warns.

The Observatory explains that it has initiated a study with a view to strengthening the security of checks.

All these developments make "all the more necessary the finalization of the implementation of strong authentication of payments on the Internet" in the coming months, which should help to provide more security for payments made online for the benefit of consumers and traders, notes the Banque de France.

© 2020 AFP