Rushanara Ali calls on banks to do more to fight fraud

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Aditi Khanna, London
Published : 23:37, Nov 07, 2019 | Updated : 20:52, Nov 08, 2019

PHOTO/Rushanaraali.orgBritish Bangladeshi MP Rushanara Ali has called on banks to do more to fight fraud and set a timeline of March 2020 to introduce tougher measures before UK regulators are forced to sanction them.
As the leader of a parliamentary inquiry undertaken by the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee, Ali said that banks should consider reimbursing victims of authorised push payment (APP) fraud to help tackle the “serious and growing problem” of economic crime in the UK and around the world.
She said: “With scams getting ever-more sophisticated, it’s clear that economic crime is a serious and growing problem in the UK.
“The Treasury Committee’s report examines the scale of economic crime faced by consumers, ways that financial firms are combatting economic crime, how economic crime is investigated, and consumer’s rights and responsibilities.”
Her committee’s report found that in the first half of 2019 over £600 million was stolen from consumers by fraudsters. It is a serious problem, with scams involving so-called “romance fraud” to posing as a consumer’s internet provider. APP, in which a consumer is conned into processing a payment to an account controlled by a criminal, is a new and growing problem.
“Fraudsters often use high-pressure tactics to convince consumers to transfer money, which does not allow a consumer time to consider if they are being defrauded. We recommend that all initial payments between accounts are subject to a 24-hour delay,” the committee's findings recommended.
The report, titled ‘Economic Crime: Consumer View’, was released just before Parliament was formally dissolved on Wednesday in time for the December 12 General Election. All MPs now officially cease being members of Parliament as a five-week campaign gets underway to seek re-election.
Rushanara Ali is an MP from a majority Bangladeshi-origin voting area of east London – Bethnal Green and Bow – and with a majority of 35,393 in the last June 2017 election, she is seen to be in a winning seat for the Labour Party.

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