UK banks told to reimburse customers tricked by scams

LONDON – Banks will have to reimburse customers tricked into sending money in a type of online scam that has become Britain's largest type of payment fraud, the Payment Systems Regulator proposed on Thursday.

The PSR proposed that banks must reimburse payments over 100 pounds (S$155) in "authorised push payment" (APP) scams.

The maximum claim would be a million pounds per payment, though many banks have lower limits. The time limit on claims would be no less than 13 months.

"Consumers still need to take caution when sending payments, but these proposed measures will have the added protection that most of their larger payments will be automatically protected," the PSR said in a statement.

The bank from which the money was sent and the bank of the fraudster would split the reimbursement bill, the PSR said. Processing costs and fees charged to customers cannot exceed 35 pounds.

Bank customers lost 583 million pounds in APP scams in 2021, up by 39 per cent on 2020, the PSR said.

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It plans to introduce the new rule after parliament expands the powers of the PSR, expected sometime in the first half of 2023.

Some of the banks that would be affected by the new rule include HSBC, Natwest Group, Lloyds, Barclays, Banco Santander and Virgin Money.

PSR also plans to publish data on how the top 25 banks are reimbursing customers and their levels of fraud.

Currently 46 per cent of customers get reimbursed for APP scams, largely footed by the sending bank, and the PSR expects this to rise to over 95 per cent under its new rule.

Several banks have already agreed to check names of the person being paid by a money transfer between banks, and the PSR wants to roll this out more widely.