We published our policy statement on APP reimbursement in June. Following a period of consultation on our draft legal instruments, and the detailed parameters of our policy, we published our final policy package in December 2023. This includes the final legal instruments giving effect to our policy requirement. The requirements come into effect on 7 October. This is the date from which PSPs must start reimbursing victims of APP scams in line with the policy.
Industry assurance
Industry should already be preparing to implement the reimbursement requirement, and collaboration in these months will be important to achieve effective implementation. We are working closely with Pay.UK, PSPs and trade bodies to ensure preparedness and effective, timely implementation.
We are supporting this with an assurance process and targeted engagement, to understand firms’ preparation for implementation by 7 October, and to identify areas where the PSR can support.
We recognise the value of industry engagement sessions in the lead up to implementation. We will be holding a series of engagement sessions from the week of 25 March on a fortnightly basis to support consistent understanding of our policy requirements. We will publish more details, including agenda, topics and times in due course.
Our assurance activities will run alongside the workshops Pay.UK is leading with firms on operational readiness, and the development of the case management solution.
Policy clarification queries
We have put in place a policy clarifications process, allowing firms to write to us at appscamspolicyclarifications@psr.org.uk, requesting clarity on the policy statements and legal instruments. We will upload responses onto our APP scams policy clarifications page and will work with Pay.UK to disseminate this information as widely as possible to ensure firm readiness.
Live implementation consultations
Compliance Monitoring - closing date: 28 May 2024
We have required Pay.UK as the payment system operator to effectively monitor PSP compliance with the Faster Payments rules. To do this, Pay.UK will need to collect data and information from in-scope PSPs. We are consulting on the data and information directed PSPs must make available to Pay.UK . The PSR will also be supporting Pay.UK in carrying out this compliance monitoring and management role.
Upcoming implementation consultations
Evaluation
We have also committed to evaluating our reimbursement policy, and this year we will publish a framework setting out how we will do this. We sought stakeholders’ views on the approach.
We are also undertaking additional monitoring of the incidence and impact of high value claims over the next months before the implementation date. We are currently gathering data and information from PSPs, covering transactions between January 2023 and May 2024. This will allow us time to assess, analyse and act on the information before the go-live date of 7 October, and to share key findings with firms so that they can take action to manage these risks effectively. We are also seeking to gather experience about consumers’ experiences of high value frauds.
CHAPS
In June 2023 the Bank of England announced its intention of introducing a reimbursement requirement for victims of APP scams in CHAPS. We said we would consult on a direction to in-scope CHAPS participants working closely with the Bank of England to achieve comparable protections for victims of APP scams over CHAPS.
We continue to work closely with the Bank, and will consult on the direction underpinning the CHAPS reimbursement policy once the details of the proposed CHAPS reimbursement rules and the data provision and compliance monitoring framework are finalised.
Other developments
APP fraud performance data
In July we will publish the second round of APP scams performance data covering the reimbursement of victims (from the largest 14 banking groups), how much money is sent from each payment firm as a result of APP fraud (from the largest 14 banking groups) and how much money is received by each payment firm as a result of APP fraud (all payment firms in the UK) and we are working with the industry to finalise this.
