The All Party Parliamentary Group on Fair Banking has published its “blueprint” on how to beat APP fraud. The report looks at how the UK is responding to threats and the early impact of the mandatory reimbursement requirement.
Key findings and recommendations include:
- several emerging themes that the PSR should focus on in its 1 year review of the requirement:
- whether the £85,000 limit was the right one to set, given that early data indicates victims are receiving only 86% loss by value – which is a significantly lower percentage than anticipated;
- clarification of how to apply the consumer standard of caution and on the distinction between fraud and civil disputes as PSPs do not appear to be consistent in their approach;
- assessing the costs to PSPs, with a particular focus on assessing whether this negatively affects competition, especially for small providers;
- getting consumer feedback on how they are experiencing the requirement in practice; and
- assessing whether fraudsters are now being pushed towards other fraud types and channels;
- ensuring that everyone is involved in prevention of crime – as viewing financial institutions as the beginning and end of fraud prevention is not fair on them;
- considering whether to include cryptocurrencies and international transfers within the requirement;
- introduce a “tech levy” which would ensure social media and telecoms companies play their part; and
- encouraging the Government to use the upcoming Fraud Strategy to be holistic, ambitious, collective, collaborative, comprehensive, fair, integrated and agile.