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Why would anyone expect the likes of Amazon to use the same business model in banking as they do in retail?  To the best of my knowledge, Virgin Money isn't run like a train operator - or is it? The reality is that Richard Branson is selling the Virgin name, not re-applying business models.

The fact that it hasn't happened yet is not proof that it isn't going to happen in the future, and the problem with pundits is they have a tendency to get a bit too excited a bit too soon.  It's going to happen, but the tech giants are going to cherry pick; the banks are going to be left with what's left.   

I think there are two things to consieder here.

The first is the fact that banking does not require much in the way of a physical presence in the High Street in order to operate the majority of its services - sad, maybe, but true.  This means that, for the tech giants (and the smaller newcomers), delivering banking services to banking service consumers is little more than an extension of their existing consumer-focussed services. 

The second is that suppliers into the banking industry are selling banking software to supply banking services to banking service consumers, but those consumers are evolving.  Few suppliers of banking services to the banking industry are extending their portfolio of offers over the banking service ringfence into consumer-focussed complementary services, even though there is a demand for such things from the banks.

I hear only the other day, a senior manager in a major banking services provider tell me that the banks were only interested in payments and making payments more cost effective.  Such short sighted ignorance inevitably leaves the banks playing into the hands of Amazon.       

Is this really a probem for the banks?  If the victims were defrauded out of cash in thier wallets - by scams of a similar nature - it would not fall to the banks to refund.  Indeed it would not be seen as a banking problem at all.  

So, if this is not a direct banking problem, the problem lies in the gulibility and therefore the vulnerability of bank customers, but the problem is exaserbated by the speed at which bank balances can be expropriated and transferred.

The development of real-time banking services has fueled the development of fraud vectors focussed on social engineering mechanisms.  

A victims fund finaced by a payment tax is not the answer.  The answer must lie in modifications to the ecosystem to reduce and limit the opportunities for fraud, but this has a cost.  There are solutions but fraud prevention has never been a headline grabber.