Australian banks join forces to protect customers from scammers with new Scam-Safe Accord
Australian banks have come together to launch a new Scam-Safe Accord, which contains a set of anti-scam measures for banks to follow to help protect customers from fraudsters.
Australian banks join forces to fight scammers
The Accord will apply to all members of the Australian Banking Association (ABA), which comprises of 20 commercial banks, and the Customer Owned Banking Association (COBA), which has 56 members including mutual banks, credit unions and building societies.
As a key component of the Accord, the industry will make a combined AUD 100 million ($66 million) investment towards building a new confirmation of payee solution that will be rolled out to all Australian banks over 2024 and 2025.
In order to protect their customers, banks have agreed to post more warnings and add more delays when paying someone new or increasing payment limits. All banks have also committed to enhancing their fraud technology and controls, with all major banks set to launch biometric checks for new account openings.
Additionally, the Accord also calls for the sharing of intelligence across the sector, enabling fraud to be reported faster and improving the chances of recovering stolen funds.
All banks will be required to act on scam intelligence from the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange by mid-2024, as well as join the Fraud Reporting Exchange.
“Preventing scammers from taking the hard-earned money of everyday Australians is a shared responsibility,” says COBA CEO Mike Lawrence. “As scammers work hard to devise new ways to steal money, it’s critical that governments, industry and consumers remain vigilant to make Australia a hard target for scammers.”
