Electronic Funds Transfer: Fraud

Question

The Government takes all fraud extremely seriously and recognises the harm that authorised push payment scams can cause. The Government has created the Joint Fraud Taskforce, which brings together government, the banks and law enforcement to develop a collective response to fraud. The objectives of the Taskforce are to protect the public and businesses from fraud, reduce the impact of fraud on victims, and increase the disruption and prosecution of fraudsters.

Furthermore, the government has established the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) with a statutory objective to ensure that the UK’s payment systems work in the interests of their users. The PSR has convened an Authorised Push Payment (APP) Scams Steering Group, made up of an equal number of both industry and consumer group representatives. On 28 September 2018 this steering group published a draft voluntary code which sets out the circumstances in which payment services providers (e.g. banks) would be responsible for reimbursing APP fraud victims who have acted appropriately. This draft voluntary code is an important step forwards towards better and more consistent protection for consumers and standards for industry.