Australian banks have joined forces to launch a new fraud-safe deal to offer a higher level of protection for customers and put fraudsters out of business in Australia.
This Agreement, between Australia’s community banks, building societies, credit unions and commercial banks is a comprehensive set of anti-fraud measures across the industry.
At the heart of the Scam-Safe Accord is a $100 million industry investment in a new payee confirmation system to be implemented across all Australian banks. Payee confirmation will help reduce fraud by ensuring people can confirm they are transferring money to the person they intend to.
Design of the new system will begin immediately and will be built and released in 2024 and 2025.
Banks have committed to introducing new and higher safeguards into their systems, meaning customers should expect more warnings and delays when paying someone new or increasing payment limits. To prevent account abuse through identity fraud, all banks will improve technology and checks, including all major banks introducing unique identification measures known as biometric checks when opening new accounts.
In addition, the Scam-Safe Accord includes a significant expansion of information sharing across the sector with all banks acting on fraud information from the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange by mid-2024 and joining the Fraud Reporting Exchange. This means critical information is quickly shared across the banking sector about fraud, improving the chances of preventing fraud and recovering stolen funds.
Customers should expect more banks to start restricting payments to high-risk channels, such as some cryptocurrency platforms, to protect customers from potential theft.