The MRC Partners with CEPOL and Other Law Enforcement Agencies

Since the founding of the MRC more than 20 years ago, fighting fraud has been at the core of our mission. Facilitating cooperation as appropriate between merchants, regulators, issuers, acquirers, card networks, and other stake holders in the payments industry is a critical part of that process. These collaborative efforts have been effective, but it’s difficult to develop a holistic fraud fighting strategy without the participation of law enforcement.

That’s why the MRC has partnered with law enforcement agencies from all over the world for the last two decades and will continue to do so going forward.

Most recently, the MRC worked with CEPOL, the law enforcement (LE) training leg of the European Commission, to further educate the agency on modern fraud mitigation practices. Úna Dillon, VP of Global Expansion and Advocacy for the MRC, shared the latest results from the 2022 Global Payments and Fraud Report with CEPOL, along with providing additional insights into modern fraud trends and how they impact merchants everywhere.

This is just the latest in a long legacy of effective partnerships:

• The MRC developed an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with Europol, and work with the agency annually on the eCommerce Fraud Action project, bringing merchants together with regional law enforcement agents who work on eCommerce crime detection and prevention.
• We hold an LE workshop at every main MRC conference, bringing case studies to our members, best practice guidelines to merchants and LE, and discussing solutions with our ever-growing experts on the solution provider side of the ecosystem.
• We have four bespoke LE webinars during the year, each showcasing where and how collaboration was effective by providing details of case studies, trends, and criminal modus operandi.
• The MRC also partnered with the Interior Ministry of Austria, securing a €500k grant from the European Commission Internal Security Fund (ISF). This grant was set up to help reach a high level of security in the EU, by preventing and combating terrorism, radicalization, and organized cybercrime.

Beyond just providing support and training though, the MRC also offers law enforcement agencies membership free of charge. By providing access to extensive member benefits, including unparalleled educational resources, events, and knowledgeable communities (including a dedicated law enforcement community group), we hope to further assist law enforcement in their unrelenting efforts to fight fraud on a global scale.

We encourage any law enforcement agency that believes they can benefit from the substantial resources of the MRC to reach out and become a member.