A senior HSBC executive is the latest banker to call for technology and social media firms to help foot the bill for compensating victims of Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud.
APP fraud has soared in recent years, with UK losses of more than $500 million in 2023. To tackle this, regulators are rolling out new rules for the banking industry that, from October, will see the vast majority of money lost to APP frauds reimbursed to victims.
However, UK banks have long been campaigning for big tech, social media and telcos to take more responsibility for fraud that originates from their platforms. According to UK Finance, 76% of APP fraud originates online and another 16% in the telco sector.
HSBC UK's head of fraud, David Callington, has now entered the fray, telling the Guardian: "The wider ecosystem, and key players in that ecosystem, have to be held to account," adding that "they [tech firms] need the financial incentive.”
Last year, 11 tech and social media firms signed up to a UK Online Fraud Charter to combat the rising level of scams from fake adverts and romance fraud.
However, UK Finance has called for government to take a tougher approach, drawing on this voluntary charter for a bill.
Says Callington: "What we would urge for is a shifting of some of those obligations into regulation, so there is an actual obligation on other sectors who are part of the ecosystem to take action and protect what are our common customers, our common users."