Urgent action needed to tackle online fraud and protect consumers
Susan Russell, CEO, Retail Ireland, Bank of Ireland and President of Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) addresses conference on ‘Preventing Fraud through Innovation, Regulation, and Collaboration’
Susan Russell, CEO, Bank of Ireland Retail Ireland, today urged policymakers and digital platforms to take decisive action to protect consumers from the growing threat of online scams.
Susan Russell was speaking at the ‘Preventing Fraud through Innovation, Regulation, and Collaboration’ conference at Trinity College Dublin organised by Mobey Forum*. Showing delegates a fake early 19th century bank note, she reflected on the long-standing role of banks in fraud prevention. “Even then, our early predecessors were on the front line of identifying and preventing fraud….Our collective responsibility, to protect customers and the integrity of the financial system, has remained exactly the same.”
She warned that fraud has evolved into a frontline battleground in financial crime, with criminals now targeting consumers directly and stealing billions of euro from innocent victims. “Because there are millions of victims spread throughout the world their voice can be lost. Some victims are losing life altering sums of money, their pension, their savings or even just the money they need to get through the week.
“Criminals never had so many ways to target their victims. Whether it is through a text message, a messaging app, by phone or through a fake social media advert fraud has become an omnipresent threat to consumers and our customers. Other sectors have a responsibility to take action to prevent their services and platforms being used by criminals.
She commended the telecoms sector’s early efforts and called on the Irish Government to legislate for full SMS scam filters, already deployed successfully in other jurisdictions. She also urged swift reform of the EU’s Digital Services Act, which she described as “a good concept in theory, which doesn’t work in the real world.” The Act relies on users and ‘trusted flaggers’ to report fraudulent adverts, but scam content vanishes quickly, often before victims realise they’ve been targeted.
She proposed a simple, effective solution – to require online platforms to verify that financial services advertisers are authorised by a recognised regulator before publishing their adverts. “This would prevent thousands of fake adverts from ever reaching the public.”
She applauded the Irish Government’s leadership in proposing legislative changes and called on EU policymakers to act decisively in the upcoming trilogue negotiations on the Payment Services Directive.
“In a year when the EU is also looking at new proposals to support retail investing by everyday consumers, it needs to address the vast amount of online scams that will only discourage consumers from taking the leap into investing.
“The sooner that policy makers accept that the Digital Services Act alone is not the solution to this urgent problem … the quicker new protections can be rolled out to protect EU consumers and cut off a large revenue stream for criminality. Every day matters in the fight against criminal fraudsters.”
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- Mobey Forum
Mobey Forum is a not-for-profit, member-based knowledge and networking platform that focuses on emerging technologies and business models in digital financial services. It connects banking practitioners around the world who are navigating similar challenges within their organisations and provide a trusted environment for sharing practical and behind-the-scenes information among members. Membership includes HSBC, Nordea, DNB, CaixaBank, Erste Group, Bank of Ireland, UBS, RBC, and Visa. www.mobeyforum.org