Santander (BME:SAN) has called on the government, banking industry and relevant bodies to tackle authorised push payment (APP) fraud.
APP is when a scammer deceives a payer into making a payment, with over 70% of scams originating from social media.
Currently, there is no “consistent regulation or legislation that is applicable to all financial institutions,” Spanish -owned Santander said in a statement.
Santander’s report made several recommendations to tackle the problem including updated payment systems to introduce new data-sharing standards, ensuring payment providers follow a specific set of fraud rules and a more tailored approach to payments.
For governments and other industries, recommendations included preventing fraudsters from reaching people in the first place and bringing the Online Safety Bill forward.
Also, greater collaboration between law enforcement and the sector, and clear and accountable leadership from the government on the issue was needed.
“The sheer scale and value of APP fraud can detract from the real impact of these crimes on individual consumers, who can lose more than just money – their confidence and mental health can also be significantly harmed,” said Enrique Alvarez, head of everyday banking at Santander UK.
“As our report shows, there are changes the banking industry can implement - but there are other changes that are clearly outside the banking industry’s control - like how fraudsters often reach their victims in the first place.”
A UK Government report in April this year also highlighted how APP fraud “increased both in value and volume,” a crime the UK Finance annual fraud report 2021 estimated to have lost people £583mln.
Santander noted that the industry needed a ‘Chip and Pin Moment’ that helped resolve card fraud which was rife in the early 2000s.