UK payments body urges platforms to share APP fraud costs

A new white paper from The Payments Association reveals that two-thirds of the £250 million lost to Authorized Push Payment (APP) fraud in the UK during early 2025 originated on digital platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. The trade body is advocating for a "shared responsibility regulatory framework," arguing that while banks face mandatory reimbursement rules, technology giants remain exempt from the financial costs of the scams proliferating on their networks.

Background and Context

The report, titled "The New Origin of APP Fraud," highlights the scale of financial crime affecting the region. According to the analysis, £450.7 million was lost to APP fraud in the UK in 2024, with £257.5 million recorded in just the first half of 2025. Across the European Economic Area, fraudulent credit transfers are estimated to total between €2.2 and €2.5 billion annually. The data indicates that scam exposure typically occurs online long before a victim initiates a banking transaction.

Key Figures and Entities

Riccardo Tordera, Vice President of Policy and Government Relations at The Payments Association, stated that "for too long, the polluter has not been the one paying." The Association's findings are based on interviews with major financial institutions, including Barclays, Revolut, Nationwide, and Santander UK. The report specifically implicates Meta’s ecosystems—comprising Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—as a primary engine for scam exposure. Victims often encounter fraudulent advertisements or marketplace listings on these platforms before being moved to private messaging apps like Telegram to finalize the deception.

Legal and Financial Mechanisms

Currently, the UK regulatory framework places a heavy burden on the payments sector. Since October 2024, rules from the Payment Systems Regulator require banks to refund victims up to £85,000 unless there is gross negligence. In contrast, the Online Safety Act 2023 mandates that platforms reduce and remove fraudulent content but imposes no duty to reimburse victims. The Payments Association argues this creates a systemic failure where banks are "trying to catch water at the bottom of a waterfall while the source remains wide open."

International Implications and Policy Response

The disparity in liability is drawing attention to international regulatory divergences. While UK reliance remains on voluntary pledges, new rules agreed upon by EU lawmakers last November propose holding platforms like Meta and TikTok liable for financial fraud for the first time. The Payments Association is urging the UK government to implement similar measures, including mandatory identity verification for advertisers and financial repercussions for platforms that fail to prevent scam exposure. Without such interventions, the body warns that the fraud crisis will continue to scale, leaving the financial system to bear the consequences of digital platform negligence.

Sources

This report draws on "The New Origin of APP Fraud" white paper by The Payments Association, data from the Payment Systems Regulator, and the UK government's Online Safety Act legislation.