Credit card fraud detectionand risk management strategies: A deep learning-based approach for EU banks

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18559/ref.2025.1.2108

Keywords:

credit card, fraud detection, deep learning, risk management, EU banks

Abstract

This study explores supervised ML-DL based approaches for enhancing credit card fraud detection and improving financial risk management systems for EU banks. This research proposes an ensemble method based on majority voting (Hard Voting Classifier) of deep learning models to detect fraud transaction. Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Convolution Neural Network (CNN), Recurrent Neural Network (RNN), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Gated Recurrent Units (GRU) have been used as deep learning models. First, the most significant features that affect the type of transaction (fraud or not fraud) have been selected. After that, the ML-DL models were applied. The performance of the proposed approach is tested using a confusion matrix, recall, precision, F-measure and accuracy. The proposed method is tested using accurate data that consists of 540,099 transactions recorded in Kaggle repository dataset of two days based on European card holder for September, 2023. The result shows that the Random Forest (RF) model detected anomalies with 99.99% accuracy, F1-score with 1.00, and excellent recall with 99.99%. As a result, the machine learning model based on RF approach shows promise as a real-time anomaly detection method with high performance and low computational cost.

JEL Classification

Truncated and Censored Models • Switching Regression Models • Threshold Regression Models (C24)
Discrete Regression and Qualitative Choice Models • Discrete Regressors • Proportions • Probabilities (C25)

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

  • Meryem-Nadjat Naas, University of Relizane, Cité Bourmadia, Algeria

    Faculty of Economics

References

BIS. (2024). Annual economic report. Bank for International Settlements. https://www.bis.org/publ/arpdf/ar2024e.pdf
View in Google Scholar

Bolton, R. J., & Hand, D. J. (2002). Statistical fraud detection: A review. Statistical Science, 17(3), 235–255.
View in Google Scholar

Brause, R., Langsdorf, T. & Hepp, M. (1999). Neural data mining for credit card fraud detection. In Proceedings 11th International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence (pp. 103–106).
View in Google Scholar

Buzzard, J. (2022). 2022 Identity fraud study: The virtual battleground. https://javelinstrategy.com/2022-Identity-fraud-scams-report
View in Google Scholar

Chaudhari, A., & Kaur, M. (2025). Enhancing global banking security: A novel approach integrating federated learning and CNN-GRU for effective anti-money laundering measures. Journal of Information Systems Engineering and Management, 10(32s). 1053– 1065.
View in Google Scholar

Chhabra, R., Goswami, S. & Ranjan, R. K. (2024). A voting ensemble machine learning based credit card fraud detection using highly imbalance data. Multimed Tools Appl, 83, 54729–54753.
View in Google Scholar

Chidananda, A. (2025). Deep learning for fraud detection in financial transactions using CNN-LSTM hybrid and GRU Model [Master thesis]. California State University.
View in Google Scholar

Detura, R., Ioshiura, C., Murphy, A., Richardson, B., Scheurle, S., Schweikert, E., & Vancauwenberghe, M. (2022, November 8). A new approach to fighting fraud while enhancing customer experience. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/risk-and-resilience/our-insights/a-new-approach-to-fighting-fraud-while-enhancing-customer-experience
View in Google Scholar

ECB. (2023, May). Annual report 2022. European Central Bank. https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/annrep/ecb.ar2022~8ae51d163b.en.pdf
View in Google Scholar

ECB. (2025, April). Annual report 2024. European Central Bank. https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/annrep/ecb.ar2024~8402d8191f.en.pdf
View in Google Scholar

Ghosh, S., & Reilly, D. (1994). Credit card fraud detection with a neural-network. In Proceedings 27th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences: Decision support and knowledge-based systems (vol. 3, pp. 621–630).
View in Google Scholar

Khanda, H. A., Stefan, A., Yuhong, Li, & Ali, M. S. (2025). A credit card fraud detection approach based on ensemble machine learning classifier with hybrid data sampling. Machine Learning with Applications, 20.
View in Google Scholar

Kolli, C. S., Tatavarthi, U. D., & Raju, D. V. N. (2023). Fraud detection in banking: AI strategies for financial institutions: Reduce complexity, increase productivity. Lap Lambert Academic Publishing.
View in Google Scholar

Mienye, I. D., & Swart, T. G. (2024). A hybrid deep learning approach with generative adversarial network for credit card fraud detection. Technologies, 12(10), 186.
View in Google Scholar

Misra, S., Thakur, S., Ghosh, M., & Saha, S. K. (2020). An autoencoder based model for detecting fraudulent credit card transactions. Procedia Computer Science, 167, 254–262.
View in Google Scholar

Moturi, S. R., Matta, R, Pavurala, P. K, Kolli, S. K, & B. Nandan K. (2024). Optimizing credit card fraud detection using deep learning by smote-enn technique. International Refereed Journal of Engineering and Science (IRJES), 13(2), 190–200. https://www.irjes.com/Papers/vol13-issue2/1302190200.pdf
View in Google Scholar

Naas, M. N., & H. Zouaoui (2024). Forecasting foreign exchange rate volatility using deep learning: Case of US dollar/Algerian dinar during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research Papers in Economics and Finance, 8(1), 91–114.
View in Google Scholar

Nilson Report. (2020). https://nilsonreport.com/newsletters/1187/
View in Google Scholar

Ren, Y. (2023). Application of machine learning algorithms in detecting credit card fraud: A comparative analysis. Highlights in Business, Economics and Management, 21, 733–739.
View in Google Scholar

Sulaiman, S. S., Nadher, I., & Hameed, S. M. (2024). Credit card fraud detection using improved deep learning models. Computers, Materials & Continua, 78(1), 1049–1069.
View in Google Scholar

Tayebi, M., & El Kafhali, S. (2025). A novel approach based on XGBoost classifier and Bayesian optimization for credit card fraud detection. Cyber Security and Applications, 3.
View in Google Scholar

Vadisena, V. K. R., Radha, V. K. R., Masthan, S. K. M., Balaji, K., Suresh, K. M., & Kolli C. S. (2024). Deep learning-based credit card fraud detection in federated learning. Expert Systems with Applications, 255(A).
View in Google Scholar

Wahab, F., Khan, I., & Sabada, S. (2024). Credit card default prediction using ML and DL techniques. Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems, 4(1), 293–306.
View in Google Scholar

Zareapoor, M., & P. Shamsolmoali, P. (2015). Application of credit card fraud detection: Based on bagging ensemble classifier. Procedia Computer Science, 48, 679–685.
View in Google Scholar

Zouaoui, H., & Naas, M. N. (2023). Option pricing using deep learning approach based on LSTM-GRU neural networks: Case of London stock exchange. Data Science in Finance and Economics, 3(3), 267–284.
View in Google Scholar

Downloads

Published

2025-08-01

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Zouaoui, H., & Naas, M.-N. (2025). Credit card fraud detectionand risk management strategies: A deep learning-based approach for EU banks. Research Papers in Economics and Finance, 9(1), 55-80. https://doi.org/10.18559/ref.2025.1.2108

Similar Articles

1-10 of 45

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.