In response to the Payment Systems Regulator's APP scams data publication

APP fraud is a devastating form of financial crime affecting UK consumers. We welcome the Payment Systems Regulator's (PSR) new APP reporting and publication regime and the benefits of transparency. The reporting regime, when fully implemented, will help all payment firms to better prevent and detect fraud and to inform consumer choice.

ClearBank launched in 2017 to provide payment services to regulated financial services institutions, and today we service over 200 payment firms. ClearBank and other fintechs are working at pace to develop solutions to prevent and detect fraud. In 2021 we implemented Confirmation of Payee (CoP) to protect our consumer accounts, and in 2023 developed a CoP service for other payment firms.

We estimate that our claims represent substantially less than one-tenth of 1% of total incoming Faster Payments transfers for the relevant accounts during 2022. Notwithstanding this, we recognise that there is more to be done in working with the industry and our customers, to prevent fraud from occurring.

We call for more collaboration between the PSR, law enforcement, the payments sector, social media and technology companies, and consumer groups to combat APP fraud. The fintech industry continues to offer innovation and solutions for the payments industry and consumers.  We believe that it will play a material role in developing prevention, detection and other controls to protect UK consumers whilst also allowing competition and innovation to continue at pace.

We look forward to continuing engagement with the PSR on its reimbursement regime. In particular, we believe that strong consumer outcomes can only be achieved when there is a balance between consumer reimbursement and promoting competition in the market. At present, we believe that the proposed rules will have a disproportionate level of impact on the market, which would in turn inhibit innovation and growth in the UK.