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Banks’ refusal to reimburse victims of fraud

In May 2019, many of the UK’s largest banks and building societies signed up to a voluntary code requiring them to reimburse customers who are victims of fraud except where the customers have been grossly negligent.However, according to the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), it now appears that many of the banks are taking a very restrictive approach to their obligation to reimburse defrauded customers. From the PSR’s data, it appears that the most generous bank has provided full refunds to 6% of its defrauded customers and partial refunds to 93% of them (rejecting 1% of claims). Whereas the least generous bank has only fully refunded 1% of its customers and given a partial refund to 3% of them, meaning that it has rejected 96% of the claims.This is disappointing news at a time when authorised push payment fraud is on the rise. It also flies in the face of the obligation which the banks themselves signed up to last year. As a result, the PSR is calling for reform of the code. This call for reform also comes on the heels of comments made by the Treasury Committee in November 2019 expressing their view that the code should be made compulsory for all banks and should have retrospective effect back to 2016 meaning that customers could claim a refund for frauds which were carried out up to four years ago.

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Robin Henry quoted in Independent on publication of RBS GRG report

Robin Henry, a partner at law firm Collyer Bristow, said the most striking conclusion in the report was that inappropriate behaviour was systematic.”Such behaviour, contrary to the law, regulations or RBS’ own policies, was not the result of rogue employees but something that GRG management was or should have been aware of,” Mr Henry said.”There was an intentional and coordinated strategy to focus on GRG’s commercial objectives rather than on the interests of its customers.”He also criticised the FCA for not carrying out the second phase of its investigation.He said: “A[nother] major failing revealed by the report’s publication is that the FCA has not followed up on its conclusions since it was completed in September 2016. “The report was supposed to be Phase 1 of the investigation into GRG, and Phase 2 was for the FCA to consider the root cause of the problems and whether RBS management knew or sanctioned GRG’s misconduct.”Nearly 18 months later, the FCA has provided no answers to these questions, and this is something it must now address as a matter of urgency.”

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Currency trader challenges FCA ban over LIBOR conduct

UBS forex trader blames senior managers at the bank for mandating LIBOR misconduct

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Wealth Manager held in breach of contract

Full Circle Asset Management has been held to have been in breach of its contractual terms with an investor by allowing the risk profile to exceed what had been agreed and by failing to operate the agreed stop-loss policy.

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Bank fraud compensation scheme floated

Concerns about authorised “push” payment frauds have prompted the Payment Services Regulator to suggest that a compensation scheme could be put in place next year. 

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FinTech companies struggling to get customer data from banks may now have leverage

Banks that delay in providing customer data are under scrutiny. The suspicion is that they are deliberately hindering companies they see as potential competitors.Customers give their consent to the transfer of data necessary to use the FinTech company’s services. Competition regulators have conduted dawn raids on banks suspected of intentionally holding up the transfer.The raids were reportedly on Polish and Dutch banks, but they were coordinated by the European Commission. Those having difficulty getting data from UK banks can complain to the Commission or to the UK authorities, or they could threaten to do so, to try to speed up the process.

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