• Refund lottery revealed as most banks say they may or will apply an “excess”, under new rules
• Tens of thousands of victims could get no refund
• 4 providers have committed to fully reimbursing fraud victims up to £85,000

7 October, 2024, LONDON –

New fraud protections have come into effect today (7th October), and the personal finance comparison site Finder has revealed that only 4 out of 21 major banks have decided to definitely cover the first £100 of any APP (authorised push payment) fraud.

APP fraud is when a fraudster tricks you into sending money from your account to an account that they control, for example by selling items online that don’t exist or pretending to be from your bank. The new rules from the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) make it a mandatory requirement for banks to cover consumers’ losses from APP fraud up to £85,000, as long as they haven’t been “grossly negligent”. But it has left banks to decide if they will apply an “excess” of up to £100 of any fraud claim.

Finder has contacted all major banks in the UK and looked through their updated website information or terms and conditions, finding only 4 have committed to covering the first £100. These are Nationwide Building Society, Virgin Money, TSB and AIB.

This is significant as previous figures from the PSR revealed that around a quarter of all APP fraud cases were for under £100. And a figure from TSB for January to June 2024 put this as high as a third.

Currently, 5 banks – HSBC, first direct, Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland – have said they will not cover fraud claims below £100, with the rest saying they “may” cover them or will judge each claim on a case-by-case basis. Starling Bank says it may apply an excess of £50 rather than £100.

Banks have to fully refund any customer classed as vulnerable.

Initially the PSR said the upper limit for refunds would be £415,00 but it then reduced this by 80% to £85,000 after lobbying from banks and payments companies.

In 2023, fraudsters stole nearly £1.2 billion in the UK. Victims of APP fraud lost £459.7 million, and got back 62% of that amount. The rules are likely to boost the total amount refunded, but it’s likely there will be tens of thousands of victims who lose less than £100 and get nothing back because of the banks’ new policies.

Commenting on the research, Liz Edwards, money expert at Finder, said:

“Our research reveals the refund lottery that fraud victims are now facing.

“Victims’ protection has been squeezed at both ends. When the upper refund limit was cut to just £85,000, many in the industry, including the PSR, justified this by saying it would still cover over 99% of claims. But because so many banks are now saying they won’t cover – or may not cover – the first £100, that 99% must surely be lower.

“Based on 2023 fraud figures, more than 58,000 cases would have resulted in no refund if all companies had applied the excess, and now only 4 of the major providers have confirmed they won’t. £100 is a lot of money to many people. It doesn’t help that 12 banks said they might apply it – customers don’t know where they stand.”

Methodology:

Finder contacted 21 major UK banks between June 2024 and October 2024 and asked them all the same questions about the upcoming deadline and what their policy was. Researchers also checked the official policy published by each bank.

The list of providers is: AIB, Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Co-operative Bank, Danske Bank, first direct, Halifax, HSBC, Chase, Lloyds Bank, Metro Bank, Monzo, Nationwide, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander, Starling Bank, Triodos Bank, TSB, Ulster Bank, Virgin Money.

*TSB research suggested that young people could be disproportionately affected by this excess. It was reported by City AM here in Jan 2023.

Industry figures for fraud under £100 – https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/12429/pdf/.