Banks will fight fraud by slowing payments

BANKS are in talks about slowing down some transfer payments to combat fraud.

Currently, most transfers go through in a matter of seconds via the Faster Payments system.

However, fraudsters who trick victims into transferring money out of their accounts can exploit this speed by then moving the cash quickly through the banking system so it cannot be easily traced.

Sources told The Mail on Sunday that banks are pushing for ‘systemwide’ changes to the Faster Payments system so some suspicious transactions could be slowed down.

Britain’s largest banks are understood to have launched talks with regulators at the Financial Conduct Authority and the Payments Systems Regulator.

People involved in negotiations said it would be very difficult to determine which transactions should face more scrutiny because one that may seem odd for one customer could be normal for another.

There would be clear cases of payments that should be queried, for example, if an 84-year-old decided to put £100,000 in cryptocurrency.

Having slowed the payment down, the banks would contact their customer to convince them the payment should be fully blocked.

However, the source said this process would also be complex, as fraud victims are often manipulated by crooks posing as HMRC, Amazon, or even the bank itself.

A spokesman for bank lobby group UK Finance said: ‘The sector is exploring a range of options including the use of enhanced data, as well as slowing down payments.’