Pay.UK COO discusses new APP reimbursement regulations at Financial Crime 360

Our Chief Operating Officer, David Morris, recently joined a panel of fellow industry leaders at Financial Crime 360 (FC360), to review and discuss the recent implementation of the Payment Systems Regulator’s (PSR’s) authorised push payment (APP) fraud reimbursement regulations.

This year’s one-day FC360 conference brought together senior decision-makers from across the payments and wider fintech ecosystem to explore strategies and solutions in tackling financial crime. 

During the session on the theme of ‘APP Reimbursement Review: Are the new regulations fit for purpose?’ the panel of industry-wide representatives debated:

-    The immediate effect of the new regulations on the level and scale of fraud
-    The nature of the fraud claims coming through for reimbursement
-    What the industry can expect to happen in the next 12 months.

The panel highlighted that although the implementation of the reimbursement regulations is a positive step towards alleviating the emotional turmoil of fraud on consumers, prevention and detection is key to its mitigation. In support of this, David talked about Pay.UK’s continued work to reduce APP fraud in the UK, specifically referring to the successful expansion of our account name-checking service, Confirmation of Payee to over 300 new organisations, and the development of the new Pay.UK directory to enable this. He reported that we are also focusing on the development of our new fraud detection and prevention overlay service, following a successful proof of concept earlier this year.

As part of the conversation, David emphasised Pay.UK’s cross-industry collaboration in the run up to the implementation of the APP reimbursement regulations on 7 October. Since implementation, Pay.UK has communicated continually with industry stakeholders and the PSR, to monitor any spikes in the number of expected fraud cases or worrying trends. We have not identified any detrimental trends so far, and the official compliance data is to be published in January 2025. This single source of accurate data and trend insights will also helpfully confirm the nature of the fraud scams to which the reimbursement claims relate. Pay.UK is now focusing on using this data to further support the fight against fraud.

In conclusion, the panellists were optimistic that the next 12 months will bring greater industry-wide collaboration, and sharing of data via Pay.UK’s reimbursement claims management system, to provide the tools to help combat fraud.

David said, “FC360 provided an excellent opportunity to meet with key representatives from across the payments ecosystem and explore ways forward in tackling fraud. I am confident that the sharing of data will help to facilitate fraud prevention and detection in the UK, and I look forward to further collaboration with the wider industry in 2025.”