Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has had discussions with payment service providers on mandatory protections for victims of authorised push payment scams.

The Government recognises the threat posed to consumers by Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud, with sophisticated scams that can be detrimental to people’s lives.

That is why the Government has legislated in the Financial Services & Markets Act 2023 to enable the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) to require banks and other payment service providers to reimburse APP fraud victims, and placed a duty on the PSR to require reimbursement by payment service providers that use the Faster Payments system (where the vast majority of APP scams currently occur) within 6 months of the legislation coming into force. The Government believes this will ensure more consistent and comprehensive protections for APP scam victims than the existing voluntary contingent reimbursement model code.