Ireland's Government has committed to the establishment of a shared fraud database between financial institutions, utility companies, and payment companies, against a backdrop where scammers stole almost €100 million in 2023.
Under current legislation banks are not allowed to share data with other important utlities. New legislation under the Data Protection Act of 2018, will seek to adress this deficiency.
The Government says it will also advocate for national and EU legislation that permits online platforms to only advertise financial products from companies regulated by their competent national authority. This proposal is now under discussion as part of the EU review of the Payments Services Regulation.
A third committment includes examining the feasibility off implementing an SMS scam filter which blocks harmful links or content. AN SMS filter is already in place in some EU Member States and banks have labelled this a priority for new legslation.
Susan Russell, CEO Retail Ireland, Bank of Ireland, says: “Prevention really is better than cure when it comes to fraud as Irish consumers and businesses are more exposed than their counterparts in other English-speaking countries. Bank of Ireland had proposed a number of policy changes to prevent fraudsters from targeting Irish consumers in the first instance. We welcome the inclusion of these commitments in the Programme for Government and we will continue to advocate for their speedy delivery by the new Government."