UK PROPOSES NEW POWERS FOR BANKS TO CURB FRAUD- Banks to pause transactions for 72 hours where fraudulent payment is suspected.
The UK is giving banks enhanced new powers to delay and investigate suspicious payments in a bid to slash the estimated 460 million pounds lost to fraud in the last year.
New laws proposed by the UK finance ministry today will enable banks to pause transactions for up to 72 hours where there are reasonable grounds to suspect a payment is fraudulent.
Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Tulip Siddiq says Hundreds of millions of pounds targeting vulnerable communities and ruining the lives of ordinary people are lost to scammers yearly.
The managing director of economic crime at UK Finance trade body, Ben Donaldson, says the additional time would allow payment service providers to contact customers at risk.
“This could potentially limit the psychological harms that these awful crimes can cause and stop money getting into the hands of criminals,” he said.
