The UK's Payment Systems Regulator is to begin collating views from a public consultation on the protection and reimbursement of victims of authorised push payments fraud and consumer protection in bank-to-bank payments.
The amount of money lost to victims of authorised push payments fraud in the UK rose to £479 million in 2020, as criminals used the Covid-19 pandemic to target people online.
The introduction of a Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM) has seen some victims getting their money back, but consumer groups says the implementation of the code by banks is patchy at best, with many customers left holding the bag.
The PSR is proposing that banks publish their APP scam data, including reimbursement and repatriation levels, and adopt a standardised approach to sharing data which will help identify these scams in the first place. It also suggests making reimbursements mandatory at a minimum standard by changing payment system rules.
Chris Hemsley, managing director of the PSR says: "We want to make it harder to commit these devastating crimes and also see victims properly protected.
"In this call for views, we set out a suite of measures that could have a significant impact on both reducing fraud and improving the protections for everyone."
In addition to APP scams protections, the PSR is also looking at the levels of protection available to consumers when they make an account-to-account payment using a smartphone app or online banking.
Says Hemsley: "We want to understand what protections our banks and building societies should have in place and how we can support this emerging payment method for everyone’s benefit."
After two months collating responses, the call for views closes at 5pm today.