{
  "id": 16143710,
  "title": "Australia’s Zip slumps 50% after fraud incident hits Q1 growth",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/23/australias-zip-slumps-50-after-fraud-incident-hits-q1-growth",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-23T02:10:37.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Investing.com",
    "slug": "investing-com",
    "url": "https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/australias-zip-slumps-50-after-fraud-incident-hits-q1-growth-4967939"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Australia's Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) shares experienced a significant drop of up to 50.5% on Friday, reaching a two-and-a-half year low of A$1.025, following a reported external fraud incident in the U.S. that reportedly disrupted transaction volumes and customer growth during the company's first fiscal quarter. By the end of trading, the stock had recovered slightly, falling by 29.6% to A$1.46. In the quarter ending September 30, total transaction volume grew 18% year-on-year to A$4.6 billion ($3.23 billion), while total income rose 17% to A$376.1 million, and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization increased nearly 20% to A$75.1 million. However, the company disclosed the fraud incident, which reportedly involved the coordinated creation of new accounts to execute unpaid transactions, causing temporary disruptions in July and August and adding $7.2 million to Zoom's cash operating expenses. The fraud event led to a significant rise in net bad debts, which increased to $49.5 million in Q1 from $39.3 million in the prior quarter, representing 1.93% of total transaction volumes in the quarter. The company expects the figure to decline in the second fiscal quarter while staying within the targeted range of 1.5% to 2.0%. The fraud incident contributed to a year-to-date stock decline of nearly 57% for Zip, amid growing concerns over slowing customer demand and its potential impact on the company's top line.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}