New rules for banks receiving scam money

Victims tricked into transferring money directly to a fraudster will soon have stronger powers to complain to the bank that received the money.

Rules being introduced by the Financial Conduct Authority on Jan 31 mean the recipient bank will have to tell the victim how it is handling the situation. If the victim is still unhappy, they can then complain to the Financial Ombudsman, a move welcomed by consumer campaigners.

Currently, the bank sending the money – not the receiving bank – must handle complaints over authorised push payment fraud, as it is termed.

According to figures from UK Finance, there were 43,875 cases of such fraud and total losses of £236million in 2017.