UK Finance responds to the HMICFRS report "Fraud: Time to Choose?

Commenting on Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services? report, ?Fraud: Time to Choose?, on the police response to fraud, Katy Worobec, Managing Director of Economic Crime at UK Finance, said:

Fraud is a crime which poses a major threat to us all and as this timely report rightly shows it requires the combined efforts of every sector, both public and private, to tackle it. The finance industry is committed to stamping out fraud, working closely with law enforcement and government, including fully-sponsoring a police unit (the DCPCU), delivering the Banking Protocol and running a national awareness campaign - Take Five to Stop Fraud. At the same time, banks continuously share fraud intelligence and data with police to help them trace the criminals responsible and bring them to justice.

Fraud can have a devastating impact on victims and the money stolen funds even more damaging crimes such as terrorism, drug trafficking and people smuggling - so it's vital that police forces are given all the resources they need to stop it. At the same time, we need changes to legislation to make it easier for banks to share information about fraud and to enable stolen funds to be unlocked so they can be returned to victims.

Area of expertise:

Economic Crime

Notes to editor

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The finance industry fully-sponsors a specialist police unit, the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU), which tackles the organised criminal groups responsible for financial fraud and scams. In 2018, <a href="https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2F74n5c… Unit prevented</a> an estimated £94.5 million of fraud, secured 48 convictions and disrupted 11 organised crime groups.</li>
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The Banking Protocol is a ground-breaking rapid response scheme through which branch staff can alert police and Trading Standards to suspected frauds taking place. The system is operational in every police force area and <a href="https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2F74n5c… £38 million</a> in fraud and enabled 231 arrests in 2018.</li>
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The <a href="https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2F74n5c… Five to Stop Fraud</a> campaign helps customers stay safe from fraud and spot the signs of a scam. The campaign is led by UK Finance and backed by the Home Office.</li>
</ul><p> The finance industry is committed to tackling fraud and scams by:</p>
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Hosting and part-funding the government-led programme to reform the system of economic crime information sharing, known in the industry as Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), so that it meets the needs of crime agencies, regulators, consumers and businesses.</li>
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Investing in advanced security systems to protect customers, including real-time transaction analysis, behavioural biometrics on devices and technology to identify the different sound tones that every phone has and the environment that they are in.</li>
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Working with consumer groups as part of the Authorised Push Payment Steering Group to <a href="https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2F74n5c… a Voluntary Code</a> to better protect customers and reduce the occurrence of APP fraud. The Code was published in February and will become effective for signatory firms on 28 May 2019.</li>
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Working with Pay.UK to implement <a href="https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2F74n5c… Insights Tactical Solution (MITS)</a>, a new technology that will help track suspicious payments and identify money mule accounts, and <a href="https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2F74n5c… of Payee</a>, an account name checking service for when a payment is made, that will help to prevent authorised push payment scams.</li>
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Working closely with mobile network operators and the messaging industry to trial a new anti-spoofing system to help root out scam text messages.</li>
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Joining with government and law enforcement to deter and disrupt the criminals responsible and better trace, freeze and return stolen funds.</li>
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Implementing multi-factor authentication for higher-value and higher-risk transactions, with new rules coming into force in September 2019.</li>
</ul><p> UK Finance is the collective voice for the banking and finance industry. Representing more than 250 firms across the industry, we act to enhance competitiveness, support customers and facilitate innovation.</p>