How we’ll track down your stolen savings

THE FINANCIAL sector invests hundreds of millions fighting fraud and tackling scams, stopping more than £6 in every £10 of attempted fraud each year.

It also runs the Take Five to Stop Fraud awareness campaign to help people protect themselves and fully sponsors a specialist police unit to target those behind these crimes.

Yesterday, the Payment Systems Regulator said good progress has been made in tackling scams, but we agree more still needs to be done. Government, law enforcement and the financial sector need to work together.

Criminals have become ever more sophisticated in their methods. We need to be ambitious in sharing more information and intelligence with law enforce- ment and across financial institutions to spot fraudsters, identify potential victims and to help trace stolen funds.

Critically, we need the changes to the law to help stop the criminals in the first place, as well as helping victims get their money back. That is why the UK banking industry welcomes Money Mail’s campaign. With a change in the law, banks would be able to share data more quickly and safely so we can better detect and prevent all types of economic crime.

It is far easier to open a bank account and to transfer money at speed than ever before. However, while these features are rightly welcomed by legitimate customers, criminals exploit them, too.

We want to work with the Government and regulators to get the balance right between openness and speed, stopping criminals and ultimately making it clear for customers if and when they can expect a refund if they’ve authorised a transfer.

Fraud is not a victimless crime, and it is only by working together that we can stop it.