05 April 2023
If you are covering the FCA’s latest Business Plan and the focus on financial scams and fraud, please find below a comment from Debbie Barton, financial crime prevention expert at Quilter:
“The FCA’s business plan puts the scourge of scams into focus, with the numbers of warnings about potential scams continuing to rise at an alarming rate. Financial scams and fraud soared during the Covid pandemic and unfortunately, despite the best efforts of everyone in the industry, it is difficult to put that genie back in the bottle. The FCA, law enforcement and companies are constantly firefighting as scammers keep popping up in new locations and with increasingly sophisticated and believable schemes.
“It is pleasing, therefore, to see the FCA set out in detail how it will continue to build on its current activities, and make the environment for scammers a difficult one to operate in. Campaigns such as ScamSmart are crucial to help people spot scams early and before any money is lost, and we need to amplify these sorts of initiatives as much as we possibly can. However, the FCA can only do so much. The government has been reliant for too long on financial businesses spotting scams to help protect consumers, however, when they do it is often after the scam has taken place, and thus incredibly difficult to recover the funds stolen.
“The Online Safety Bill is a first step to tackling scams, but we have been speaking about it for years now. This is a problem that needed addressing well before today, yet that Bill is making painstakingly slow progress through parliament and in the meantime people continue to suffer. Ultimately, tech firms have a duty of care and need to be doing more from the outset to stop these scams popping up in the first place. The public agrees and, according to Ofcom research, see them as being most responsible for taking action. Strengthening the enforcement capabilities and requirements across all industries and making social media companies liable for the content pushed on their platforms will help in this regard and take some of the pressure off the FCA and public authorities. It is time the Online Safety Bill was implemented.”
