Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to support people experiencing bank transfer fraud.

The Government takes bank transfer fraud, often known as Authorised Push Payment (APP) scams, extremely seriously.

The Payment Systems Regulator, which was set up by the Government in 2015, established a steering group of financial institutions and consumer representatives to develop a voluntary industry Code of good practice to help protect consumers against these kinds of scam.

At the end of February 2019, the steering group published the Code, which sets out the agreed principles for greater protection of consumers and the circumstances in which they will be reimbursed, marking a significant step in delivering improved protections for customers.

The Code became effective on 28 May 2019 and customers of those payment service providers that are signatories are protected under the Code from this date.