Payee verification deadline strikes hurdles

Authorised push payment fraud – where account holders are duped into sending funds to a fraudster rather than who they think they are paying – is, alarmingly, on the rise. One of the ways that the payments industry is fighting back is with ‘Confirmation of Payee’. But the complex technological and process changes involved in implementation, along with competition and data protection concerns, are hampering a speedy roll-out, report Angie Bamboulis and Caroline Stevenson.

Caroline Stevenson is a legal director and Angie Bamboulis is a solicitor in the financial services regulatory team at Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP. Contact them on caroline.stevenson@wbd-uk.com and angie.bamboulis@wbd-uk.com.

Use of online banking and mobile banking apps that allow customers to make payments faster and more easily is widespread in the United Kingdom. However, with the increase in the use of emerging technologies, fraudsters have become more sophisticated.