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If you should be victim to an Authorised Push Payment (APP) scam, whether or how much you’re reimbursed depends on where you bank, the latest statistics from the UK Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) suggest.
The regulator in its study of 14 main banking firms says that some automatically reimburse in full, others may only make a partial reimbursement leaving victims to bear part of the loss, and others will only accept claims subject to very narrow circumstances. In 2023, 4.5 billion transactions were made using the Faster Payments system; meanwhile, victims reported 252,626 cases of APP scams totalling almost £341m.
The findings include 11 other smaller firms that were in the top 20 highest receivers of fraud. The smaller firms are included as they represent a disproportionately high level of fraud received.
David Geale, Managing Director of the PSR, said: “We can see some positive changes with more victims being reimbursed than in 2022. But there is still more to do – particularly for some smaller firms which have much higher rates of receiving fraud than larger firms. Our new mandatory reimbursement measures will dramatically increase protection for consumers. These come into effect on October 7, and we are already seeing payment firms innovating and improving their controls, which is key to preventing scams from happening in the first place.”
Under the voluntary reimbursement framework, about two-thirds, 67 per cent of money lost to APP scams was reimbursed. While this has improved on 2022 (61pc), the regulator still sees an inconsistent approach by firms when it comes to reimbursing victims. Only the sending firm makes any reimbursement, ignoring the vital role receiving firms play in preventing scammers from accessing the UK’s payments systems, the PSR says.
By volume of cases, Nationwide fully reimbursed 96pc of the APP scam cases reported to it; TSB, 95pc and Barclays 82pc. By contrast 3pc of cases reported to AIB were fully reimbursed, 7pc by Danske Bank and 9pc by Monzo. Similarly by value of APP losses, TSB reimbursed 88pc of APP scam losses, Nationwide 87pc and HSBC 76pc, while AIB Group reimbursed 9pc, Danske Bank 13pc and Monzo 17pc.
Comment
Rocio Concha, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the consumer campaign group Which?, said the figures showed new rules cannot come soon enough and must not be delayed. She said: “The PSR’s report acknowledges levels of performance vary hugely depending on which bank a consumer uses, so while there have been some improvements, fraud victims are still facing a reimbursement lottery and some firms are clearly way off the pace.
“The government and the regulator have faced heavy lobbying by sections of the industry to push back against the new mandatory reimbursement scheme which will see the vast majority of scam victims get their money back. Consumers are being targeted by highly sophisticated scams, that they can often do little to protect themselves from. The UK is in desperate need of these protections which have been years in the making and will play a vital role in the fight against fraud.”
