It's no secret that fraud and scams pose a major threat. The criminals behind it are unscrupulous, often targeting some of the most vulnerable in society, and the money they steal fuels illegal activity ranging from drug trafficking to terrorism.

The finance industry is fighting back. Last year banks stopped £1.4 billion in unauthorised fraud. Millions of pounds are being invested in advanced security systems to protect customers and we are combining forces with government and the police to track to deter and disrupt the criminals.

But the task doesn't end there - we know there is more to do to stop the threat and we are focused on where customers are targeted. There were over 43,000 cases of authorised push payment (APP) scams in 2017 in which customers were tricked into transferring money to a criminal.

At the end of last year, the Payment Systems Regulator asked UK Finance to lead the development of a comprehensive set of initiatives to tackle fraud and scams such as these. Since then we have been working with our members to deliver them.

We have established new best practice standards for responding to APP scam claims, so that customers get the help they need. These went live at the start of the year and are already in place across over 80 per cent of the market.

UK Finance is also now hosting the Government-led programme to reform the system of economic crime information sharing, known in the industry as Suspicious Activity Reports, so that it meets the needs of crime agencies, regulators, consumers and businesses.

We are working with the Information Commissioner's Office to establish guidance on how information about APP scams can be shared between our members, so they can protect their customers.

We are also facilitating the development of new guidelines for payment service providers on identity verification, authentication and risk assessment. Covering the whole of a firm's relationship with a customer, including account opening and processing transactions, the guidelines will provide clarity on the existing rules and guidance which providers are required to follow.

This autumn we?ll be publishing the next set of our APP scams data covering the first half of 2018. By analysing the statistics, we can better understand the nature of the problem and inform our response. Meanwhile our latest data can be found in our new Fraud the Facts 2018report.

At the same time, we continue to equip customers with the knowledge they need to stay safe from scams through our Take Five to Stop Fraud campaign.

Together, these developments will provide us with a stronger armoury in the fight against fraud and, ultimately, be to the benefit of consumers and businesses our industry serves. We are working at pace to deliver them.

You can read a fuller update on the progress made in our letter to Hannah Nixon, Managing Director of the Payment Systems Regulator.